Love Lost, Now Found
by ladyofheavenhell
Summary: Inutaisho brings a new wife home. The bargan chip to seal the deal to ending a war. She's loved for what she does and what she is. 2 lords shall be 3 lovers but in one fell swoop it's all taken away. One is willing, the other a secret. CHPTS 9-17 UP!
1. Chapter 1

This chapter might be kind of boring since it is the first one, but please try to survive it. I'll bring a new one in afew days.

**Chapter 1 Arrivals and New Best Friends**

The women of the castle gathered in the front courtyard to see the soldiers and their loved ones come back. They all had happy faces on and held their children close because of their happiness and that so they wouldn't get run over when the men and others would come through the gate. The son of the lord was the one that saw to replacing his father while he was gone and saw that he should give everyone a break for the day so they could hang with their husbands and the children with their fathers.

He sighed heavily and stuffed his hands into his sleeves as the horns blew for the arrival of the army. He was glad that the two year long war was over because governing for his father during the war was hard enough while trying to protect the palace.

The gates finally opened and he stood there waiting for his father and when he saw him, he bowed with a greeting. "Welcome back father."

"Hello Sesshomaru." His father stated and got off his horse then turned back towards the gates smiling at a carriage he saw.

Sesshomaru saw it and arched an eyebrow at it then looked at his father. _'Why is he so happy?'_ He thought to himself and asked his father, "May I ask whom is in there my lord?"

"It's my lady wife son," he said then turned to Sesshomaru. "She is the reason why this war ended so suddenly. Her father made the marriage so it wouldn't go on any longer."

Sesshomaru looked at the carriage and watched the door intently wanting to know what this woman looked like so that it made his father so anxious. Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched Inutaisho.

Inutaisho walked up to the stopped carriage and opened the door holding his hand out to the woman as she stepped out. Inutaisho's smile turned into a grin as his kissed her hand gently and guided her towards Sesshomaru.

She was a beautiful woman, though she looked to be the age of Sesshomaru himself but that still didn't match to the curves and soft childlike features that she possessed. It was the perfect amount of child in her that made her so beautiful though but you still couldn't let go of the sadness in her face and green orbed eyes. But she didn't show it to Inutaisho because she had to keep her courtesy so that her people wouldn't have to go into war again, which drastically changed the economy of her father's empire.

Her clothes looked to be the finest silk in Japan that both Sesshomaru's father and himself ever saw. They showed how proud and wealthy her family was. Or maybe it was just for this one occasion.

Inutaisho moved her silky black hair out of her face as he admired her then looked back to his son. "This is my new wife Sesshomaru and I hope that you treat her with as much respect as you would your mother."

'_He… How could he? After all that he said to mother when she was dying!'_ The youkai prince yelled to himself at his father but calmed down. _'But he has to keep the line though or else our family would go down. I'll forgive him for now.'_

"Well?" His father asked again blinking at Sesshomaru's lack of response, which was unusual.

"Gomen, father. I was just thinking how wonderful a wife she would be." He lied. He didn't want his father to have a new wife because if she had a son and he replaced him with the boy then he wouldn't have the birthright of the lands anymore. He wasn't about to let her have those and he wouldn't have the bastard have what he deserved.

"Oh and such a lovely body she has too." He said and leaned over to his son to whisper something. "She still has her maidenhead too."

Sesshomaru blinked at why he would told him that but then dismissed it out of his thoughts as he looked at the woman who was blushing as though she heard what he had said.

"Shall we go have some tea then after we freshen up?" He asked his new wife and she nodded mutely in reply. "Then we shall." Inutaisho said and guided her into the castle. With the lord's presence gone, also with the lady of the house, everyone started to talk again. Most of everyone was talking to their husbands and family now but quite a few were talking about their lord's new wife.

Sesshomaru watched his father and the youkai woman then followed behind silently. He turned towards his room and sighed as he was thinking. _'I wonder why father didn't tell me about this before he came home? Could he have wanted it to be a surprise? Why do I care about what he does! It's not like I ever have!'_

"This is a beautiful castle Inutaisho-sama." His wife complemented smiling at him and looking around the halls at the few paintings and delicate hand-carvings on the poles and walls.

"Arigato, but it was like this before I became lord. Now, do you think it was quite hilarious when everyone stopped their yapping and watched you get out. That was quite interesting what they were expecting but I think that they are pleased with you. You are one of the most beautiful woman I've laid my eyes on." He smiled at her and laughed.

She blushed a little. "Please stop my lord, I don't really mind at all what people think of me unless they say I'm a horrible person. I don't care if anyone thinks that I am an ugly person."

"Oh, but you are beautiful inside and out. I even think that my son, with his quietness and no emotions showing, lost both of those and was gawking at you." He grinned and laughed once more. "I have never seen him act like that before. That was a change in everything that I've seen of him."

"But your son must be so nice. He did give everyone a day off when you arrived. Was he always like this Inutaisho-sama?" She asked looking at him.

"He wasn't really ever this quiet till his mother died a few years back before the war. He was like all other males his age with his energy and hormones." Inutaisho started to laugh as he thought about it and she joined him but in her own womanly laugh. "Hai, but he seemed to become more mature once she died."

"I wish the war never started, though. It ruined my people and yours also, I promise."

"If it had never started then I wouldn't have met you."

"But my father could have married me off to you for an alliance or you could have met me while searching for a new wife. My family line is strong and he's the Lord of the North so you would have gone there." She said and looked down. _'I wish father never have said it because I want to be with the one I love, not the one that he forced me to marry. I wish that I was never the eldest of my sisters or else I would be with him now.'_ She thought sadly.

"Come milady Solia. Let us have some tea then sleep the night away in our own beds. Aren't I right that you are tired of sleeping in that small carriage?"

Solia nodded and smiled. _'Hai, I'm just glad that I don't have to sleep with you. Even though you are nice and handsome as ever but I just can't unless I love someone.'_

The morning was quiet and when Solia woke she found herself laying on the futon alone which made her happy since she wanted to be alone. She sat up and smiled as she covered her eyes from the light that was barely coming through the paper walls.

"Are you awake milady?" A woman's voice asked at the door.

"Hai, what is it?" She asked softly as she walked to the door and kneeled down, but she adjusted her clothing before opening it and covered her mouth from a yawn.

"Konnichiwa milady. Would you like anything to eat?" The girl asked bowing at her and smiled.

"Please, that would be nice. I'll be coming with you also; I want to look around the castle." She said and closed the door again and stood back up to get dressed then remembered that she didn't really know how her clothes went because she had always had someone do them for her. She turned back to the door and opened it asking the servant to help her with her clothing. "I would really appreciate it," she said smiling at her and took her hand gently walking her inside.

The girl blinked then laughed a little. "You are nice my lady. May I ask you what your name is?"

"It's Lady Solia, but you call me Solia. I don't like having Lady or Princess in my title. It makes me feel awkward. Wouldn't you think so if you were called with those?" She asked stopping and looked in the drawer getting out the things she wanted to wear and tossed them onto the floor.

"I think I wouldn't mind it that much at first but then maybe if I was called that all the time then I would get tired of it." The girl said and picked her clothes up. "Can you take off your night clothes please milady?"

"Oh yes, gomen." Solia took them off and followed all the girl's orders so it would get done with. But when she was done dressing her, it was already time to go. Solia thanked her and asked her to show her to the dining room.

As the girl walked her down the hall out of her wing, she noticed that her wing of the palace was the only area that was the most detailed. The rest of it was just detailed carvings without any gold or wonderful gems imbedded in it.

As they were walking towards there, she saw Inutaisho's son, Sesshomaru. She stopped and bowed to him. "Good morning Lord Sesshomaru. I hope you had a good sleep?"

When he heard her, he stopped in his tracks looking towards them. He arched an eyebrow at being called by such a proper title by his father's wife. "Why do you call me that? You are my father's wife." He asked keeping his usual cold mask on but watched her.

"Hai, I understand but I am not his wife yet my lord. I was only brought here, but he plans to have the ceremony for our marriage soon. Then I will be his wife, but until then I do not have the authority to call you by any other name. Don't you think so?"

Sesshomaru wanted to smirk at her smart thinking but forced himself not to. He couldn't let his emotions slip anytime. Especially since he never had done it around his father since his mother died and he would damn himself if he did it now in front of her. He was still killing himself on the inside at what happened yesterday when he first saw the woman.

"My lord?" Solia asked looking at him blinking at his lack of words.

Sesshomaru looked at her after coming out of his thoughts and nodded his answer to what she said before. "That is most smart, you know what to do. But I have to go now, I have things to do." He bowed his head and walked past them towards where his father's study was.

Solia and the girl looked at each other while Solia was blinking confused. Once he got out of the range of hearing she asked the girl, "what is wrong with him? Has he always been so cold?"

The girl nodded slowly and sighed. "Hai, milady. He was always so nice and polite whenever his mother was alive. He was always quite close to her but it seemed that he lost all his feelings since she died. Its sad. Hai it is."

Solia looked towards the direction where Sesshomaru went with caring eyes then looked back to the girl with a big grin on her face. "It may seen as I have another person to help."

"What do you mean milady?"

"Oh, I used to help people with their feelings whenever I lived with my father. A lot of the women in the palace lost loved ones during the war and I dedicated myself to helping them. It has worked every time and they are happy with their new husbands now. Even though I know that they still miss their mates and that is something that will never leave them."

"Oh really? That's sounds wonderful!" She gasped a little when she heard a low rumble from her lady's stomache.

Solia blushed then laughed. "It may seem that I have to hurry or else I will faint." She said laughing still and took the girl's wrist as she ran down the hall as the girl told her where to go. They laughed and talked about everything on the way and it seemed that the girl was the only one that she was going to be best friends with since she found out that the girl was her servant.

She stopped as she ran out of breath and looked at the panting girl. "That was the hardest I've ever run for a long time. Oh, I haven't asked your name yet! What is it my friend?" She asked clutching her chest then straightened out her robes.

The girl smiled. "Its Yuniko milady. May I say something?"

She nodded in reply since her throat couldn't quite talk at the moment.

"You are the most wonderful women I've met. I mean of the royalty. I'm very happy that you came!" Yuniko smiled more and hugged her lay around the neck in happiness.

Solia blinked staring at the head Yuniko then her eyes softened as she hugged her back. "It is very nice to meet you Yuniko. I wish that we can be this close till the day that I die, even though it is the first day that I've met you. Wait, it hasn't even been a day!" She laughed and pulled her off laughing and smiling. "Let's get a bite to eat! You and I both bet are starving!"

Yuniko nodded and turned to the door as she took her shoes off stepping out of the way for her lady. She opened the door and bowed a little smiling as Solia walked inside.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter2 wedding ceremony and plans' (ch1arrivals and best friends)  
Solia was sitting in the garden the next day with Yumiko going over what she could do to have him start showing his feelings, or at least some emotions besides coldness.  
"What about you ask him to like tea or something every week…or every few days!" Yuniko suggested as she poured another cup of tea for her lady.  
"Maybe, because he does have a lot of things to do." She sighed. She thought it was going to be easy to try to bring his old self out but making up the plans was the most difficult! "Kami!" She whined and laid down on the blanket.  
Yuniko laughed and sipped her tea. "If we don't think of anything, then let's just let it flow. I mean that if there is something that he could be invited to then you should. Hmm"  
"Hai!" Solia exclaimed as she sprang up looking at her friend with a big grin then hugged her. She was the closest she had here in the castle and here in the castle, she was finally able to act like she always wanted to. She hated acting all polite and her father never let her get that close to her servants. He had them switched out everyday or sometimes sooner if he saw that she was being nice to her. He was always strict with her since she was the eldest and he wanted her to get married soon so he had her taking lessons on the things most ladies her age took.  
But she didn't exactly need to because she and her sisters always talked about that stuff. It may have made them blush talking about it but it was so much fun because every time they started to laugh! Or at least when their minds would wander to the perverted side of even the most innocent of sentences.  
"Well, I see that you are enjoying yourself my lady." Came a voice that interrupted her thoughts and made her jump with a yelp. She looked back and blinked seeing it was her soon to be husband. She stood up and bowed to him giving him a sweet smile.  
Yuniko was already standing and that made her feel stupid since she didn't notice him coming.  
"Hello my lord." She said as he glided towards her again. "What would bring yourself here?" She asked tilting her head.  
"I need you of coarse. Remember that we aren't married yet"  
"Oh yes, the wedding ceremony. I have already forgotten about that! Gomen…" She bowed her head a little then blinked as she heard him laugh.  
"It is quite alright my dear. I have just come to get you so we can talk about it." Inutaisho stated and ran his finger over her cheek, which made her blink. "I still can't believe that I have found someone as beautiful as you. Now, may you accompany me to my study so we can discuss it"  
Solia nodded and told Yuniko to pack their things and take it back to her room.  
She nodded with a small hai' as Inutaisho took her hand guiding her out of her garden.  
Once they were out of her garden and room, he asked, "So I assume that you like her"  
Solia nodded. "She is wonderful my lord. We have become quite good friends"  
"That is good, but you don't want to become too attached or else you will miss her when she is gone"  
"What do you mean"  
"I mean if she gets married of course"  
"Please don't do that my lord. She is once in a lifetime friend." She begged softly and stopped when he did.  
"Why would I want to make my mate miserable? I wouldn't be able to stand that." He looked at her and kissed her gently on the cheek. "But let's avoid that. We need to talk about this wedding of ours"  
"Oh yes! May I ask who is all coming"  
"The lords of the rest of Japan, plus your father and whomever they are inviting"  
"Why so many? Shouldn't only the youkai in this castle, plus my father and my family come"  
Inutaisho blinked at what she said. "Don't you know that the other lords have to witness our marriage?" He asked as he stopped and opened the door to his study.  
Solia blinked then nodded as she walked inside. She stopped as soon as she started to look around for someplace to sit and awed at the splendor of the study.  
The walls were covered with paintings, seeming to be mostly Sesshomaru when he was a small pup and a few pictures of a woman, which she guess to be his mother since she looked exactly like him when it came to the markings and color of his hair. But there were also paintings of Inutaisho that were the most detailed which didn't surprise her since he was the Lord of the West. There seemed to be millions of rows of book packed bookshelves. that showed that he didn't mess around when it came to information because not one space was empty. She saw a few tables with books opened to certain pages and three comfortable looking cushions around each. The last she saw was the paper covered desk where Sesshomaru sat doing some work that his father asked him to do.  
"Do you always admire everything where ever you go?" Inutaisho's voice said interrupting her thoughts.  
That is obvious father. Everyone stops in their place whenever they see the place. What's so big about it? It's just a library with a lot of books. Plus with all the papers and books about, it makes it look like a battleground. that reminds me, I need to tell Jaken to clean this place up.' Sesshomaru thought looking to Solia then back after rolling his eyes.  
"I would rather sit and look instead Solia?" He asked as he glanced over at his son then pointed to a table that was empty.  
Solia nodded and walked over sitting as he sat across from her.  
"Now, may you answer my question before you started to daydream"  
She blinked as she forgot then nodded slowly as she answered. "I must have forgotten, I do that quite often now"  
He laughed. "That is understandable. Are you nervous about this"  
"A little, not to be rude my lord"  
"That is something else to be understood. My first mate was nervous when I married her and a little later until I brought her a gift." He blinked as something came to him. "That reminds me. What are you giving me as a gift"  
Solia looked at him then back down as she blushed a little. "That is really not any of your business my lord. Not if you want it to be kept secret, but if I were going to give you something. I mean someone. It would be a son." She whispered the last part and blushed more. She covered her face as she didn't want him to see how red she was.  
"You don't have to be so embarrassed my sweet flower." He pulled her hands away form her face and stared at her while kissing her palms. "It is quite normal for a lady to say that and plus once you see what I will give you. Your heart will stop from excite-" Inutaisho stopped when he heard Sesshomaru get up and watched him. "Where are you going son"  
"Someplace where I won't have to hear this? It is quite difficult to listen to that and do work at the same time." He said walking out and Solia and Inutaisho watched.  
"He is right my lord"  
"He will have to get use to it if he wants to take a mate. I'm thinking about him marrying soon, though"  
"But he doesn't need one right now my lord. You are still young and healthy"  
"Hai, but I need to make sure that this house will stay in this castle. I may died any time from anything like a sudden cold or while I'm out checking my lands. So that means that if I do then he will need an heir so no one will try to take it from him. I've worked too hard for that to happen. I won't let anything get in the way"  
"But he's so young my lord; my age in fact, I think. He doesn't need to have an heir till he's at least an adult. Plus he won't have any trouble with finding a mate. He's so handsome, like you, that every woman would want to marry him"  
Will she just shutup! She's not my mother so she doesn't need to talk to him like I am!' Sesshomaru growled in his head as he listened then walked away. He didn't want to listen to all the shit they were coming up with.  
Inutaisho smiled as she complimented him and shook his head. "Hai indeed. He won't have any trouble at all"  
Solia sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror with her wedding kimono on. It was finally going to happen after a few weeks of everything being prepared. She hadn't really been excited about this but she smiled whenever she saw Inutaisho. She didn't want to disappoint him with no smile at what they would be to each other soon. He was a kind man that she never thought someone of his status would be like. "Are you almost done Yuniko?" She asked glancing at the mirror to the girl behind her.  
"Hai, just a few more details." She said smiling back at her. She was the one that was excited about the marriage. When she was done she grabbed the perfume bottle spraying her till she couldn't smell her scent anymore.  
It was part of the youkai tradition to do that. They didn't want any other male to smell a bride's scent because she wasn't his and other tradition was that no other man should see her face either till her new mate would remove it to kiss and mark her.  
Solia took the mask and sighed heavily as she placed it on her face turning to the door. "Okay, let's go before they start to worry. We are a little late." She took Yuniko's hand and walked out but blinked stopping when she saw the person that she didn't want to see now. Kuzo. He was suppose to stay in the hall'  
"What are you doing? Haven't you learned how to act"  
She looked down bowing. "Hello father"  
"You're late"  
"Gomen my lord. But it took longer than expected"  
"I can see with how you are acting with the wench." He stated growling, glancing at Yuniko and she closed her eyes.  
"Gomen again father"  
"This will halt till after the wedding. But as soon as everything else is done then I will have a talk with you"  
Solia nodded and started towards the great hall again, with him by her side.  
That changed her and Yuniko's plans of gossiping while walking there. But she blinked and swallowed as she heard talking coming from inside the doors. Her father told the guard to tell the announcer that she was here and she swallowed once again nervous. She didn't want to mess up now, especially since her father was going to talk to her after the ceremony.  
He took her hand and guided her through the doors towards the raised area where a chair would have sat. All the while she was staring ahead of her as small droplets of perspiration started to form and the more the people in the court whispered, the worst it got. She was only glad that she wore a mask so that no one could see that she was nervous Inutaisho was watching her from the front of the platform.  
Solia stopped beside him and bowed slightly as her father walked into the crowd while Inutaisho took her hand and kissed it looking towards the priest of the palace. He started to talk and that made her look up.  
Once he stopped and told Inutaisho to take her mask off, she got nervous once again. He smelt how nervous she was so he leaned down to her ear and whispered a don't worry'  
She nodded and he nodded back a little.  
Once all of the marriage was done and the eating and drinking started to begin or end in Solia's mind. She sighed and looked at her new husband. He was laughing at something that her father said but she tugged at his sleeve otherwise a little. "Inutaisho," she whispered softly leaning in to his ear. "Can we go"  
He stopped laughing and looked at her smiling. "Of coarse! But be careful with all the drunks around!" He exclaimed in a drunken voice.  
Hai, but I think that we should watch out for you.' She thought and smiled mentally to herself. She bowed and gave him a half kiss on his cheek before walking out. "I'm glad to be out of there. Father makes me nervous and whenever he sees me do something that I'm not suppose to as a lady he gets mad. I hope he forgets about what he said earlier about talking with me later"  
"Why do you have to hate your own father"  
Solia jumped and turned around eyes wide. "Oh, its only you Sesshomaru." She sighed heavily her hand to her chest as she felt her heart started going again.  
"You didn't answer my question"  
She looked at him and then back down sadness in her face. "I do love him as a father but he has always been cruel to me. You see, I killed my mother when she was having me so he blames me with her death. He's nice to my other brothers and sisters because they were born from my his wife now and isn't that strict with them. He's always been worse with me since I'm the eldest and that I'm the only one from his first wife." She closed and ran her hand through her hair but stopped when she noticed that it wasn't down. She looked up to a few strands out of place and shrugged as she started to undo her hair.  
"I guess that's worse than what happened to me. My mother died a few years ago while she was coming back from her parents home. I guess I was lucky to know mine since she had me"  
She paused at what she was doing when he began and looked at him. "I heard that you changed a lot since she died. You must have been very close to her"  
"Feh, not that close. She just taught me things that father or my sensai didn't. I may have been a pain in the ass but she didn't mind at all because she always had a reason or solution for what I did"  
Solia nodded and smiled. "I see at least you knew her. But I'm glad that you don't hate me. I was nervous that you did because I was marrying your father. I don't want to replace your mother but …." She paused thinking what she wanted from him. "Well, I just want you to treat me like one of your sisters or something. I don't like being hated by someone." She smiled and ran her claws through her hair smiling. "So, will you"  
Sesshomaru blinked then shrugged as he laughed a little. "Sure." He said simply and walked off towards his room.  
He laughed. Inutaisho said that he's never laughed before after she died. Why did he laugh'  
"He's drunk you know. He hasn't drank in a while so he isn't that used to the effects." Her friend Yuniko said from behind her. "This is the first time he's ever drank that much. I've never seen him drink that much before." She laughed and looked at Solia.  
She back at her blinking. "Really?" She said unbelieving as she looked back to his descending form. ""Maybe that's why he talked so freely. Heh. That s funny. Come on, let's go back to my room"  
"Sure." Yuniko walked beside her and something popped into her mind that happened to someone in the grand hall so she started to tell her. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 'Yelling then Wounding'

"Why is my head pounding so much? What did I do last night?" Sesshomaru grumbled as he rubbed his temples and forehead. It was pounding like hell and he had the worse headache ever. "All I remember was that woman being kissed by father then…" His eyes snapped open and he growled. "Fuck! I got drunk!"

He sat up then fell back down not able to hold himself up. "I better not have done anything. If I did then I'm going to kill myself. I must have drunk a lot if I don't remember anything." He slid off his bed and landed on the floor with a loud thump but ignored the pain of that by the dizziness of his head. He sat up against the side and closed his eyes to wait for everything to stop spinning.

Sesshomaru always acted like himself when he was in his room. It took almost all his energy to not laugh or do anything that was joyful of him. But what took most of his energy was keeping his cold mask on. He may have never cried when he found out that his mother died but it devastated him into silence when he was around people.

He heard a knock at his door and made himself stand up so he wouldn't look stupid. He walked over to where his clothes were and began to dig around for something. "Come in." He said smoothly.

The door slid open and when he looked he saw Solia's maid. She bowed. "Lady Solia would like you see you Lord my lord."

He arched an eyebrow at this and wondered to himself why she would want to see him. "Tell her that I will be there soon after I have dressed and eaten. Unless she wants to join me."

Yuniko bowed again and said she would tell her. She closed the door behind her leaving the puzzled Sesshomaru in his now state of questioning. "Why would she want me? Did I do something with her last night?" He growled at himself once again why he would let himself get drunk.

He grabbed a blue kimono top outlined in green and green pants then got dressed quickly. Before he would eat, he would have to get some antidote to the hangover so he wouldn't look stupid when he was against the walk holding his head.

3 . 3

Yuniko smiled to herself and walked inside where Solia was. She put her hands over her eyes after she tiptoed over to her. "Guess what?"

Solia laughed and took her hands off bending her head back to look at her. "I said yes?"

She nodded and sat next to her. "He also has a terrible hangover. He was trying to hide it like a small child being sick but you could smell it on him."

They both laughed together at that for a bit until said something. "When is he coming?"

"He said that he was going to eat then come but said you could join him if you want."

She nodded and then sighed as she took a sip of her tea. "I just hope father doesn't come to see me. I hope he has forgotten."

"You never know with someone who had drunk the night before."

Solia nodded but ran her hand through her hair still worried that he would come. "He has never broken something that he said he would do."

3 . 3

Sesshomaru walked out of the healer's room stretching after looking for anyone in the hallway. He felt much better now and was ready to question the woman about why she wanted him.

He headed there and in a short few minutes he was there knocking at her door. An answer came and he walked inside bowing his head slightly to Yuniko then a lot to Solia.

"You wanted me my lady."

"Hai, I just wanted to say that you were majorly drunk last night. Why would you be that drunk? Yuniko here says that you've haven't done that in a long time now." She held her hand out to the cushion in front of her.

Sesshomaru blinked and looked at Yuniko then took his seat. "I was. I don't remember why I wanted to drink though." He knew alright but he lied instead because he thought it would just embarrass himself. "Why are you telling my something that I would already know?"

Solia smiled then it turned into a sort of sad expression. "I just thought that you were sad so you drank." She looked at Yuniko telling her to go so she could talk to him privately. After Yuniko had left she looked back to him and began to say something ", I know you miss your mother."

He was quiet for a bit but then spoke also. "I said that didn't I?" He kept his expression cold but what she said was true and that was what made him want to go to his old self. He wanted to cold his eyes and let tears pour down his face. But he didn't want to do that in front of her.

"I don't mean to come into your privacy but…" She looked at him straight in the eyes. "I know it hurts and I hate people being hurt. I know it must have felt horrible and broken our heart and joy, when she died."

He growled lightly at her. "You don't know my feelings and you have no business looking for why I am like this. Your may be the wife of my father but you are not my mother so don't try to act like you can be. She is dead after all." He closed his eyes before she could see the redness that was coming to them.

She smiled inside her head. _'He's stubborn and that's good but it hurts even more to keep it inside. But he is almost a adult so he probably wants to keep his pride where it is suppose to be so it won't cause him an embarrassment.'_

"You are lucky my father is so generous or else your family would have lost to him. Your father was desperate wasn't he? Or else he wouldn't have married you t my father." He said in malice and he looked at her for her reaction.

She growled and formed fists but wouldn't do anything else to show that she was angry. If she hadn't had been taught so good to control her emotions, then she would have her hand on his throat. You could hardly tell she was angry when she spoke a few seconds later after him. "Really, I told him to do it. My people were in terrible debt from the war so I told my father that it would be smartest to propose a treaty with Inutaisho saying that he will retreat from the war if I marry him." She calmed her nerves down and continued. "If ours fathers would have kept the war on then my father and his lands would have died or gone to your father. I thought it smartest to retreat and give up then let my father's effort of trying to control those lands, from when he was small, to wash away like a spring rain would to everything. My people and their safety is all that I care about."

Sesshomaru was impressed with her plan and forced himself to not smile at it. He swore to himself that if he did to her, someone he just met and hated, then it would show that she was changing him like he didn't want to. "That was a good choice. But I am impressed that a woman came up with that. I've never known any female to be so skillful with the art of war plans or treaties." He noticed her smile and thought of something else. "Do not be that joyful. This is the only compliment I will give to a wench like you. Pardon, my lady, but I'm going to go if you will let me." He bowed his head.

"Go ahead, but sometime we will talk aga- Shit." She growled and formed fists as she closed her eyes after looking at the door and hearing stomping. She smelt her father coming this way and his scent seemed to be having the intense scent of madness more than usual. "I would go if I were you." She warned him and swallowed.

Sesshomaru looked towards the door and sniffed the air just enough to give the whiff of someone very angry. He stood and bowed to her quickly walking towards the door.

It slammed open just as Sesshomaru was grabbing the handle and jumped back a little at whom was standing there. Solia's father looked like he just came back from hell compared to his usual appearance. His long, tins black hair was a mess looking like the back of a porcupine and his clothes looked like they were just thrown back on from yesterday after a bath in some mud. That made both Solia and Sesshomaru suspicious at hat he did last night.

"How dare YOU! After what you said to me about the war and the MARRIAGE! If you care so MUCH about your people and your family then you better act like a true LADY! That means that you NEED to wait for the lord to leave BEFORE you do!" He ran over to her and slapped her hard across the face. Hard enough to make her fall to the floor.

Solia just layed there doing nothing because she knew that if she did any movement them he would just hit her again. The only thing that she could do was say sorry and she did. "Father! I sorry! I forgot! Please, I ….I won't do it again!" She begged and forced her tears not to fall even she wanted to cry so hard from how hard he hit her. He had left an already bruising face and five long claw marks that were deep, and already bleeding quite severely, on her face. He was really pissed off this time and drunk besides that, which made it worse for his anger.

"Forgive you! I should just KILL you after I caught you with Inutaisho's son!" He raised his hand up again and was already swinging when it was suddenly stopped. He growled long and deep as he turned around to see who stopped him but it brought out a more threatening growl. "You… How dare YOU stare at her the whole time while it was happening! I saw lust in your eyes for her!"

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes and growled back at him, his grip on his wrist tightening. "Lust? I haven't had lust for anyone. Why would I start with your daughter?" He narrowed his eyes at him.

"You did show lust for her! Don't deny it!" He growled and yanked his own hand away hard. "The only reason you are so quite since your mother's death was because you tried to fuck her and she tried to stop you so you killed her!" He was ready to punch him but turned back to Solia thinking that he won that contest of words. He raised his hand once more.

He was pissed now. NO ONE talked about his mother, even if he wasn't as close as they could have been. He didn't care about is emotions or controlling himself any longer. He just wanted to shred him to pieces. He pretty much did too as he grabbed him by the neck and threw him into the floor swearing at him. "I'll KILL YOU for saying that! How dare YOU! YOU are the one that has NO respect! You have NOTHING!" He growled deep as his eyes turned red and wrapped his hands around his neck squeezing as hard as he could. The poison in his claws seeped out as his anger rose even more and as they punctured the male's skin.

Solia gasped and her eyes went wide as she yelled for anyone to call for Inutaisho because she knew that he would be able to be the only one to stop Sesshomaru. But she was too late because Yuniko was already at him yelling that Solia was in danger.

Inutaisho sped through the hallways, from all the way across the castle, and in a few minutes he arrived there. "Sesshomaru! Sesshomaru stop this nonsense!" He yelled trying to get his hands off the other lord's neck.

Sesshomaru just growled at him and bit snapped at him so Inutaisho fucked the negotiation and threw him outside into the garden. He held him down as he held his arm behind Sesshomaru's back and hit him in the neck hard enough to have him fall unconscious. Sesshomaru's eyes went back to normal and poison stopped coming out from his claws.

Inutaisho stood up panting staring at his son then looked back to Solia who still had wide eyes. "Is your father alright?" He asked walking back to her from the garden.

She blinked and looked at him then felt his neck for a pulse and nodded her head. "Hai, but he's barely breathing. He's lucky to be alive after what your son did." She smiled a little because Sesshomaru was the first to ever have enough courage to do that. She winced though from the gashes on her face and growled slightly from the pain.

Inutaisho knelt beside her and turned her face to him so he could look at the wound. "You should have known that he can't do that. You're lucky to be immune to poison because its in there very deep. You better get something on it really soon or else it'll scar. We don't want that to happen to a pretty thing like you." He smiled at her trying to cheer her up a little and she blushed at the comment. He looked back to her father and looked him over but didn't see any wounds other than the ones around his neck. "Sesshomaru got pretty mad if he was able to do this. Your father just fell unconscious, but what did he say that made him so mad?" He asked her and turned back to her.

"He accused him about his mother." She said looking down. It was the rudest and most horrible thing that she's heard him say.

"Tell me exactly." He took her arm and helped her up walking to the door and told some servants to take Sesshomaru to his room and her father to the healing woman, where he was taking Solia.

After he had told them to do that then she began to talk. "He said that the only reason that your wife is dead is because he wanted to have her and she said no, so…." She closed her eyes stopping because it was too awful to stand.

"Continue Solia."

She nodded slowly as she apologized and finished it. "So… so he killed her."

"Heh… Why are you so worked up about that? Its wouldn't be true because Sesshomaru was here at the castle with me while she was traveling back here. But I'll have a talk with him about respect for you and my son." He took her to the healing woman and she put an antibiotic on the wound. Gave her some more liquid form of it, telling her to use it on it everyday till it healed all the way.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 'Sick of It'

"I can say what I want to him! I'm higher than him so that's it!" Lord Darighon, Solia's father, barked at Inutaisho.

He growled and stood up getting a little peeved at the bastard. "That doesn't matter! He is my son and if you want to keep this treaty pure with how it started with and on going then you will not do that again! And you will not strike my wife again or anyone else here in my castle!"

Darighon grinded his teeth together and glanced at Solia that was seating next to Inutaisho with her head down. "I will do as I please to my daughter! And if you or myself does break the treaty then she will come back to me!"

"That is too late! If she had not been married and we had broken it then she would go back to you but she has already married me so you can't do shit about it!" He yelled back at him and walked in front of his desk facing the lord.

"I can do what I want! Do you want to know something?" He eyed him and narrowed his eyes a little to intensify what he was going to say. "I saw your son staring at Solia like he wanted her then he talked to her afterward!"

"Well, do think that everyone was getting drunk so he could of acted not like his usual self! I know you know that since you did drink a lot of saki that night also."

He blinked then growled as a reply of 'that it was impossible that he could have done that.'

Solia opened her mouth and growled. "Shutup father. Just shutup and leave me alone! You think that things happen the way that you want to see them. Sesshomaru and I were just talking about something as innocent as a pup could!" Her bangs were over her eyes.

Darighon growled for her disrespect and was walking over to her when Inutaisho stopped him with a push. "Leave. Leave here now."

"Please my lord, don't let him. I want to tell him something that even he doesn't know about. But if you don't mind my lord, can you leave so I can tell him?" She asked politely.

Inutaisho arched an eyebrow then nodded kissing her forehead walking out.

She stared at her hands and growled again. "No one ever told you but I've been training for the war. I was planning on sneaking into the ranks dressed as a man so that I could see my love. He knew I wanted to do that because I told him but he didn't want me to get hurt. He loved me and treated me like no one else has. He said that after the war was done and when he was a much higher rank then he would ask if he could marry me? I told him that would be impossible because you would never allow it. Only royalty marries royalty and when he would have asked you then you would have killed him right there. I know this because of all the others that have come to ask for their marriage to me."

She paused and looked at him not afraid to say what she needed to. "You know the last ranks that left from the castle to guard us? Well he was in those ranks and I went to see him as a slave. Hai, I was actually dressed as one of those women."

He growled was growling deep now but held himself in his spot from hurting her to hear the rest. Even though he thought that the rest would drive him to kill her.

Solia stood and walked over to him looking him in the eyes. "He took me. I let him because I loved him as what he was, not what he could have given me."

Darighon's eyes widened and held his hand up to slap her and she stopped him holding his wrist. "You little whore!"

She grinned. "The only reason you didn't smell any man on me when I came back was because I some perfume that could hide my scent and HIS." She held his wrist tighter. "I have his child now and you can't smell it because I hide the scent. I learned this from my training. How to change my scent to anything I want to." Her hand went to her stomach and a laugh escaped her lips because the look on his face.

"Bitch!" He grabbed her throat with his other hand growling loud. "I'll kill you!"

Solia let his wrist go and grabbed the other one and dug her nails into it piercing all the way through and dropped back on her feet. He was snarling very mad and held his damaged arm. She seeing that he wouldn't attack but stand there, took him by the throat instead and picked him off his feet. "You never thought that I would be this powerful didn't you? You never thought that I could learn and train as hard as a man does. I was surprised at first then settled down knowing that I could beat my own father. I was hungry for more power, or more than you yourself had from what I heard."

He winced. "Why have you suddenly… wanted to do this? Why are… you so intent on becoming… more powerful than me?"

"Heh… why do you think? I was getting sick of you commanding me and ordering me to do everything that you thought was right. I got tired of you saying over and over again that I killed mother." She growled and squeezed harder making him whimper. "Why would I want to kill mother?"

The door opened a little and then there was a scream. Inutaisho ran in and froze when he saw Solia holding Darighon in the air. "What are you doing?" He ran over and grabbed her hand. "Let him go."

Solia looked at him and blinked. "Why should I after all he has done to me? I've gone through more pain than he can imagine."

"Hai, but killing your father won't do anything. Please let him go Solia." He paused to think of a reason that he should be let go then looked her in the eyes. "He is the lord of the Southern Lands and if he dies then your family and others will be fighting over whom will be the next emperor. That will have your people go into poverty again. Do you want that to happen to them?"

Solia closed her eyes then shook her head. "The people are the most important to me. They go through much more than the royals." She let her grip loosen and dropped him. "I'm sorry my lord. I just lost it." She bowed. "Please, can I be dismissed?"

Inutaisho sighed heavily looking at the other lord and nodded to her. "Hai, but we will talk later."

She bowed again and walked out. She looked at her hand and licked the blood off. Others around her gave her odd looks but didn't say anything not wanting to get evolved with anything. "I lost it. How can I do that? I've never done that before. Maybe…" She looked down at her stomach and touched it. "Maybe, I'll ask the healer."

3 . 3

Inutaisho helped Lord Darighon up and let him sit down. "What happened? How could she become so, so violent? I haven't seen her like that." He looked at him but he couldn't blame her that much for wanting to kill him.

"I think it has to do with a few reasons." He held his wrist still to stop the bleeding then looked up to Inutaisho. "Because of me and because…she is… with pup."

"What?" Inutaisho asked thinking that he didn't hear correctly.

"She's with pup."

"But…" He was lost. He didn't do anything that dealt with having a woman come with a pup.

"It is not yours. It is someone else's. She said it herself."

"Who's could it be?"

"Someone from my palace before you came."

"How could I not smell it then?"

Darighon sighed and growled. "She hid it. She hid it well from our noses."

Inutaisho closed his eyes becoming frustrated all of a sudden and plopped down in a seat. _ 'What can I do about this?'_

The other Southern Lord looked at him and seeing the tenseness, he dismissed himself.

'_Damn, what can I do? I don't want to have her dead then the war will come again. And if I kill the pup then she'll be miserable. If the father is the one she loves.'_ He rubbed his temples. _'I seems now all this treaty has done is bring trouble. Not as much as war does, but still a lot of trouble._'

3 . 3

Solia sat in her room, her head on the low table thinking to herself. She just had realized, with a scary fear, that if she told her father them he wold have told Inutaisho. She was now worried and thinking what would do with her and the unborn pup. Her hand slowly made its way back to her stomach and closed her eyes. "I don't want to loose this one. He's dead and this is all I have left of him."

"My lady?" Came Yuniko's fear filled voice as she stepped into the room. Her eyes were wide as she stared at her and it looked like they were about to burst with tears. "I-I heard from… Why didn't… Why didn't you say…. anything to me…about it?" She walked over to her slowly and fell onto her knees beside her.

Solia sat up, her face unmoved by what she said. "What have you heard?" She asked, setting her gently on top of Yuniko's.

"You… You are with pup. But its not Lord Inutaisho's."

She lowered her eyes from her back to the table and nodded. "I am…a month and a half now. I haven't told anyone. Everyone in the castle now knows about it don't they?" She looked back to her.

She nodded and bit her lower lip as she sniffled whipping her eyes. "My friend. You must have loved him hadn't you?"

Solia smiled and hugged her tightly. "He was the first one I ever loved and the first one I wanted to die for. But I found out that he died in the battle when Lord Inutaisho attacked my palace grounds." She sniffled herself as her eyes started to weld up tears. "I pray that my husband understands. He is very kind and… I just pray that he let's me keep me child." Her grip on Yuniko tightened as she started to cry herself and Yuniko soon did also. They held each other in the other's arms crying for the other person and themselves for their own reasons.

It hurt bad for both of them as old hurtful and horror like memories came back to each other. The more that came, the more they each cried.

But to Solia it felt good to cry. She never had cried, only when she was a young pup, when her lover died, and now. It felt so good to let all her sadness, and fear for others and herself out; even anger was in her tears that poured down her now wet, red stained face. Her anger was of questioning herself of why she had to meet the man at her castle and fall in love, and why he had to die before his promise to her of marrying her, when he was an approval to her father.

Solia and Yuniko cried for what seems like hours and finally they had gotten so tired that they each fell asleep in each other's arms.

. 3 .

He opened his golden orbed eyes and grumbled under his breath as he winced at the light. He turned his head and winced as he did so as an ache came again to his neck. His head was pounding again and he felt like he was having another hangover again. But he knew it wasn't an hangover, and was now questioning himself what happened to make his head hurt so badly.

As he thought more about it the more his head hurt but he tried as best he could to ignore it. He wanted to know what happened and it seemed that he knew but it was all blurry. _'Damn this. All I know is that I was talking to Solia and then her father came in.'_ He opened his eyes as the memory of his yelling came back to him but there was no scene to come with it.

"I'll kill him if I hadn't already. And she should have not let him yell at her that way or injure like that." He said as he thought of the wound that her father had inflicted on her. He blinked at what he was saying and growled. "Why am I worried about her. I don't even like her."

'_Liar.' _Said a small voice inside his head and he growled louder as he tried to push it back deep inside of himself again. It resisted though and held on to the outside to say what it wanted. _'You just won't admit that you want her. You have to admit that she is beautiful. And if you actually have paid attention to her after her father hit her then you have seen how strong she was. That was a serious wound that he did and she just acted like it was a small smack, instead of a gash on her cheek.' _It recalled to him.

Sesshomaru opened his mouth to have some excuse or something, but then he thought about what his own subconscious had said, something that he usually didn't mind when he pondered about things. "You are right for once. A normal female would have screamed in agony. I wonder how could she withstand a blow like that?"

'_You are an idiot if you don't see it already. She must have been trained to endure and be immune to pain like that.'_ It gave a small snicker as it mentally hit him.

"I see. But a woman wouldn't train. Men do that."

'_She must have had a reason to do it. You know that females are keen to what they set their eyes on. If they desire it then they will take it. Your own mother was the exact same way.' _ It gave an inward smirk and a evil laugh. _'Heh, why don't you go and ask her yourself?'_

"Why should I? I don't want to get involved into anything else." He sighed heavily as he sat up holding his pounding head and groaned as he held himself up with his other arm. "I already know that father is going to be mad at me since I didn't do shit about what her father did to her. Plus I attacked him, almost killing him."

'But you have to admit that it felt soooo good to let out all that anger and finally be able to not have that cold mask on. Even though it was replaced by your fury.'

"I guess it-" Sesshomaru stopped when he heard the door slid open and he suddenly realized that he was in the healer's quarters. His subconscious disappeared back into the depths of his mind.

She looked at him and smiled as she went over to him, her deep blue eyes watching him enjoyingly. "Are you talking to yourself again my lord? You did it quite frequently while you were unconscious. For some reason you kept saying the Lady Solia's name." She grinned staring down at him then walked over to a low shelf gathering a few choice bottles of remedies.

Sesshomaru gawked at what she said then realized what he was doing and closed his mouth before she saw.

"Lady Solia was varely injured when I saw her, and I've heard that you witnessed it but didn't do anything. Why didn't you my lord?" She asked him and she knelt beside him asking him to turn his back to her.

He did as she asked and closed his eyes as soon as he didn't face her. "I was mad at her. We had a talk and she said things that were of no business to her." He said coolly.

She removed the top of his kimono and grabbed a bottle, spreading salve across his back after making sure that his beautiful silver hair was out of the way.

He growled at himself inwardly as what the healing woman had said a few moments ago_. 'I have to remember to go ask the woman why she didn't do anything and how she could bear pain like that.' _ He thought and was glad that his subconscious was hidden inside of him for now.

The healer sighed and stood up. "Now, my lord. Please try to control your anger. You know that I am still busy with healing the many youkai soldiers that the war has brought. I can't afford anymore distractions from my healing the really injured ones for something as simple as yours. Though I don't mean to be rude Lord Sesshomaru but I am being truthful. Now pardon me and let me go for the others." She stood and walked back over to the shelf putting the bottles back in their place.

Sesshomaru nodded and thanked her as he dismissed her. She smiled and bowed exiting. He slid his top back on and stood adjusting it and the rest of his clothes. He would visit Solia and do as his subconscious wanted and what just now wanted. He was most curious, for once after a long time.

He exited the room to the hall and placed his cold mask back on before walking down the hallway.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Unexpected Things

In a few minutes he was there and knocked firmly a few times before an answer came. "Come in Sesshomaru." Solia's calm voice said and he walked inside.

"Pardon me my lady but I would like to talk to you again. I apologize about what I did earlier. I was rude." He bowed slightly.

Solia laughed as she looked at him. "That is okay." He looked up and saw a large bruise on her cheek and his eyes widened at how hard her father had actually hit her.

'_How? I would of winced at least from a blow of that altitude. I am glad now that I've decided to come.'_ His eyes widened even more though as a scent came to him now. _'Her scent is more different now. Its not like before and it doesn't have father's scent mixed with her's… does this mean that she-'_

Solia's laugh interrupted his thoughts and jumped a little at how amused it seemed to be. She looked at him coolly as a grin appeared on her lips as she saw how his face turned. She knew what just happened and it was funny at how he looked discovering something that wasn't like before. "You are slow like everyone else. I have thought that you merely didn't care about this and so you didn't say anything." Her voice said in viscously and that also shocked him another time. He stood up straight and sat down slowly as he watched her out of the corner of his eye as her head followed him.

"How can you do that? A mere woman can't hide her scent. Only the very strong ones can hide their scent. Which is fairly rare."

"You are as slow as you father and everyone else. But you are the only one to figure out something only one's mate can smell."

"That's not my father's child is it?" He asked placing his mask back on and becoming more serious with what was going on between them.

She clapped her hands but she smirked evilly and he jumped a little once again at her actions. "You are for sure smart Sesshomaru. You're father is very powerful but he didn't even sense or smell that is hidden with someone's own power. Or else he didn't want to see what was past what was right in front of him." Her eyes were cold and emotionless like his now and that frightened him a little because he had always seen a caring or soft look, whenever he saw her.

He narrowed his eyes as she talked about his own father making him seem a dumb dog. That ticked him, thought not as bad as talk about his mother, but it was like an arrow towards his own pride and family. He let out a threatening growl at her. "You don't care about the treaty do you? Did you just marry my father to try to ashamed him with this to try to make his feel stupid?"

She arched eyebrow at him. "No, I care dearly for my people but this child has been with me for about two months now. This pup was conceived before your father even attacked my palace. " She eyed him with pure intent on what she was about to say. "And Sesshomaru, I intend to keep the child no matter what your father says."

He arched an eyebrow at her. "You seem to be more cruel than I first expected. But I think it may be because you are with a pup." A small smirk appeared on his face.

"It seems that you may be right but I see that you are enjoying having this conversation?"

He nodded in reply and she cackled lightly. "It seems that my interest in you has increased even more now. And it may be the same with you."

"Oh it sure has little pup." She said mocking him. She wanted to get him mad for some reason.

It sure as heel did get him mad; but only mad enough so that a loud growl would come from his lips. "Are you trying to persuade me to attack you in some way woman?"

Solia ran a claw down her bruised cheek and to her chin and she thought in a quite manner trying to annoy him with silence. It lasted for a few minutes till he decided to pipe up. "Talk woman, or I will decide to leave."

"A very ticked off dog you seem to be now. I like that." She turned her head back to him and stood up with a look of pure evil intentions on her face looking at him. He watched her closely as she moved gracefully over to his side and kneeled down next to him. "You are quite handsome for someone of your youth."

He blinked eyes widening and stared her straight in the eyes. She was telling the truth and it seemed that she wanted a reaction from it. With the almost shocked look on his face now it surely got her joy up. But he would pay it back with one of his own comments. "Heh," he turned to her all the way staring at her calmly. "I understand why a man would want you. A woman of your beauty and seeming to have a lot of smart mouthed wits floating in that beautifully groomed head of yours." He grinned as more of his mischievous thoughts came out of his lips. "If I had a choice, I would taken you the first I laid my eyes on you. It is quite attractive."

That definitely got her eyes to widen and show shock in them for once. He decided to make a move that would deepen the look on her face; something that he had never done with any woman before. He gently cupped her chin in his clawed hand and stared into her green-orbed eyes. Her eyes widened at the action. You would think that was the limit of the widening of her eyes, but to no avail. They did widen even more.

Sesshomaru's lips were pressed against her's in a deep kiss, his eyes closed to what he wanted to see in her face. But he knew that it would be the same pretty face when he would look. But as he thought more into enjoying and imaging what she looked like with the shocked look, the more he wanted to take it even farther just to know her reaction.

Solia was already frozen in her seat as soon as he placed his lips on her's. _'What the hell is he doing! Its only been a few months since we had seen each other and been in the same god forsaken castle!'_ She yelled inside her confused brain. _'Is he trying to test me? He has no right to do this! Wait! Why the hell am I just sitting here and letting him do this?'_

She clamed down a little as she thought about how good a kisser he was and compared to her pup's father, he was pretty good a kisser. With that thought she unstiffened a little and closed her eyes as she thought of him as her lover.

Sesshomaru blinked and opened his eyes to look at her and almost gasped with the look she had on her face. It was joy and passion she had. _'This wasn't how it was suppose to be! What the hell is she thinking?'_ His eye twitched, irritated at how easily his plans could be foiled. _'Its probably that damn pup she is carrying! Damn females and their change of mood when they're with pup!'_ Sesshomaru knew this with how many women he had been around while they were with a pup. How could it be that a female would have such irritating and easily shifting change in their mood when they were pregnant? It confused him like hell and he kept constantly asking that question whenever he was around one of them. This was one of those times but he would soon realize that it would disappear from his mind totally.

His eyes softened at something else that just came to his mind. What she said about intending, and firmly on that, to keep the pup was probably a sign of love towards her lover. _'She probably misses him. Maybe that is why she is acting this way?'_ He sighed inside his own conscious trying to give a reason she was doing this. His eyes closed in content as he slowly wrapped his arms around her slender body. Pulling her closer to him his heart started to pound even faster as her soft breasts met with his body.

She was calm though and that pleased him in a way as she deepened it with her hands moving up to cup his face. You would think that that Sesshomaru would not do this kind of thing, since he hated her but it seemed that this was one of those times that he lost control over himself. His instincts had fully taken over at the move that she just did and he was cursing his inner self to stop but of coarse it ignored him.

His arms tightened around her small form as he leaned back against the table shaking the cups on top a little. She moved with him and leaned against him.

Solia had now lost herself into her instincts also. Her instincts to obey the every move of the male that she were with this moment. She was screaming inside herself, though, trying to get herself under control but her body seemed to not want to cooperate at the moment. _'Get the heel off him!'_ She screamed at herself and if she could, she would hit her really hard on the head to get her off him. _'He's being a real bastard doing this! Doesn't he know that if we get caught them we will both be in big shit?……OMG! DON'T DO THAT!'_ She screamed even louder but it didn't matter how much she demanded her or his body to stop.

It would be funny if they both realized that they were both wanting the same things, but of coarse they couldn't read each other minds so that would have been impossible. If they did know that they were thinking the same way then Sesshomaru would have probably been disgusted at such thoughts and Solia would be blushing as hard as her cheeks would possibly let her.

Solia was on top of Sesshomaru now as he laid on the floor still holding onto her. His mind wandered deeper into the depths of his mind as one of his free hands began to descend to the bottom of her kimono and just as he was about to lift the bottom up he heard and smelt his father coming their way. His eyes snapped open and he escaped the confines of his mind to control himself again. He pushed her off and growled low as he glared at her and stood up abruptly. He bowed quickly to her and walked out. Though it was like a run because he was trying to get out as fast as he could before his father would be close enough. He would pretend that he was remembering something that he had to do.

Inutaisho saw his son pretty much run out of Solia's room. He called out to him but he didn't get an answer like he usually did. It told him that he was trying to avoid him, but why? Sesshomaru had never tried to avoid talking with him before and surely he knew not to pretend like he heard nothing from his own father. _'What is up with him? He is acting weird all of a sudden. I wonder why?'_ He narrowed his eyes at him stopping in front of Solia's room but watched the distant form of Sesshomaru disappear.

He shook his head and turned to her door knocking. "Solia."

She jumped and her eyes widened as she suddenly realized Inutaisho was there. She was just too shocked to notice anything after Sesshomaru had broke the kiss and stopped with what he was doing. She lowered her hand from her lips and fixed her hair a little going back to her side of the table where she usually sat.

She sighed heavily and prayed that he wouldn't smell Sesshomaru on her. And if he did, then she would be dead or would have a long talk about what happened. That was something that she wanted to avoid at this moment because she wanted to sort through with what happened and how it happened.

"Come in." She said as calm as she could say but it come out of a kind if stutter.

Inutaisho arched and eyebrow at that but shook his head entering anyway. "I want to talk to you."

Solia looked at him trying to hide her embarrassment, though she didn't exactly know why she was so embarrassed. "What is it my Lord?" She asked politely.

He sat down across from her. "Would you please explain why you didn't want to tell some certain information. It is most unpleasant to hear that you are with pup and it isn't even mine. Kindly explain this Solia." He said serous now and looked at her.

Her hands tightly clasped her kimono as she was suddenly overcome by fear.

Inutaisho could smell it also, coming off her in great waves and that made his want to question her more but he didn't want to pressure her. He wanted her to freely tell without being afraid of how he would react like.

"It…it was at my father's my…lord." She started out stuttering and looked down at her hands.

He watched her fumble with her clothes and knew that she was worried of what he would do to her. "Do not worry Solia, I won't do anything to you. I just want to know." He said trying to take some of her out of her face and movements.

"O-Okay." She swallowed and continued. "Well, my lord, I…I fell in love. I wanted to not tell you because I was… I was afraid that you would kill either me, the baby or both of us." She lowered her head down more till her bangs covered her face. "I'm sorry I kept it a secret." She whispered and closed her eyes.

Inutaisho smiled and stood, going over to her and tilted her chin up to look at him. "It doesn't matter Solia. You can love whomever you want. It doesn't matter because no one can do anything about it. They can't make you stop those feelings from blooming." He rubbed his thumb gently across her cheek smiling.

Solia watched him say that and a very small smile appeared on her face. "Arigato, Lord Inutaisho." She smiled and hugged him and he blinked then hugged her back a little. He wasn't that used to hugging anyone; it just had been a long time since he had done it. Since his son, Sesshomaru, was a small pup.

"Solia," he whispered next to her ear. "I need to ask you something else."

She blinked and let go of him sitting back, staring at him. "What is it?"

"Your father told me that you have trained and I could sense it a little. But you hide it so well that it seems that it's a normal power for a female youkai. How did you become so powerful?" He stared into her eyes.

She looked down at her hands again and sighed heavily. "I trained at my father's before you attacked us. I was going to fight with father without him knowing but I was convinced not to."

"By the man who loved you?" He asked tilting his head just a bit.

She nodded. "I was training since the war started and I finally thought that this was the time that I would be needed to get involved since you were going to attack the palace."

She sighed. She couldn't believe that she was telling all this to him. She hadn't known him that long, but she did trust him of not going ballistic with how much she had heard of how such a good lord he was from all the soldiers. She didn't actually get told that but she heard it from them whenever Inutaisho was gone off doing something on her way to his palace.

"Heh, that's good or else I wouldn't have you as my lady wife then. Solia… you don't have to worry. You can keep the pup."

Solia's eyes widened, gawking. "Pardon my lord."

He laughed. "You can keep your pup."

'_Oh kami… arigato!'_ She yelled in her mind as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He smiled hugging her back. "Arigato Inutaisho! Arigato!"

"I just know how it is to be your age. I was the same way at your age." He gently pushed her off him and took her hands. "Please don't do that again. It shows others that I can't notice things. It'll make others not trust my judgement either."

"I understand. My other pups will be yours. That will be my promise. Although I already have to bear your children since I am your wife." She smiled then blushed a little making Inutaisho laugh also. She seemed to blush even more and blinked. "What's so funny?"

"Its nothing Solia."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Sweat ran down all over her body. Small scratches from her own power were all over her. She used her aura to battle against her body's will and make it harder to move. Like water. Her trainer taught her after he thought she was strong enough to be able to do it without collapsing flat onto the ground after a few seconds of using the technique.

She knew she was a little over two-thirds through her pregnancy now and her huge stomach got in her way a lot, but she was determined to stay fit and keep her skills from plummeting. If she just sat on her ass the whole time she was carrying her pup then that would defiantly happen. She was delighted when Inutaisho had said that he would let her train when she asked him. He thought it was important to stay in touch with your abilities. Even if it was a woman; the Lady of the Western Lands, in fact.

He was proud to have a strong wife and he knew that it would help when she bore his own pups. He was also proud that she had easily hidden her powers from him and her father. He soon found out, after he had let her start to train in his dojo, that she had been training way early in the morning before even one person was awake.

Solia paused in her attack panting and stared in front of her, not letting her eyes wander from her front. She felt like she was about to collapse with a few tons of weights on her.

Of coarse the pup was part of it but she thought it was helping her and the pup. Making them both strong and healthy. She learned it from watching other females sit around on their butts and when they gave birth, the babe was sometimes unhealthy. She didn't want that to happen to her children. She would keep training with all the children that she would carry. She wouldn't let herself become lazy. Even when she was an old youkai that could hardly stand. But she doubted that she would give him a child at that age.

She felt a kick in her stomach and she blinked relaxing her pose and looked down running her hand over her stomach. "Shhhh… I know you like it. Don't worry, we will continue soon. I need a rest sweetie." She soothed at her stomach smiling and walked over to a bench sitting down and laying her weapon, a long staff, against the wall.

She wished that she had her old training weapon back. She would do much better with it for some reason and she thought it was better than a stupid sword. It looked like the Grim Reaper's syth mixed with an axe. It may not of looked that good but when it came to killing, it was excellent for that purpose. He master told her that when she had chosen it.

Solia shook her head out of her thoughts and looked beside her at a basin of water. She grabbed it and dumped it over her head to cool herself down. Sighing in relief at the cool dampness that covered her now.

"That was excellent Solia. I haven't seen you do that good ever." Came Inutaisho's voice from the entrance to the dojo.

"Inutaisho!" She whaled, snapping her arms up to cover her chest. The clothing she wore was thin so you wouldn't get that hot in it and it would allow you to maneuver easily. She only wore it because she thought that her husband and no one else would come in. She thought that Inutaisho would be busy attending the meeting with the other lords of his land. But she was wrong. "Inutaisho…. why do you always do this? You should know by now that I can't sense anyone whenever I'm training. I thought you were in a meeting?" She asked with a flushed face and her hands still clutching her fighting kimono.

He laughed shaking his head. "We were stopped by a fight. I thought it would stop soon since it seemed pointless to argue about. I guess it wasn't that simple with the lords. They damaged each other pretty bad and so I have stopped it for now." He stopped and stared at her swelled belly smiling then looked to her face. He titled his head a little to the side laughing. "I also wanted to bring something to you. You know that weapon that you wanted? Well, I kinda changed your idea of the way you wanted it to look." His eyes gleamed in excitement at her answer to come.

Solia's eyes widened and then narrowed them at him. "What does it look like then?" She asked annoyed at him doing that without her consent. "Show it."

Inutaisho laughed once again and walked out of the room then came back holding it in his hand. "I actually think you'll like it."

"We'll see. Can you go get a dry kimono please?"

"Hehe… sure." He walked out leaving her weapon behind.

Solia stood, going over to it and started to examine it. "Hmm. Its nice I guess. It would be easier to handle with all these details engraved into it. That means I can't get mad at him." She sighed then smiled setting it back against the wall.

Inutaisho came back inside. "Do you like it?"

Solia turned her head towards him and smiled grabbing the kimono. "I love it. Its beautiful and I think that you were smart to make all those engravings. It'll be easier to handle. Won't let my hands slip that easily." She put the kimono over the wet fighting one and slipped it off. Tying the obi around her waist she turned back around to him. "I appreciate it." She smiled and kissed his cheek and laughed looking at him. "I would hug you but this huge thing would get in the way." They both laughed and she grabbed his hand walking out with him behind her. "Let's go walk and talk. Its been a few days since we seen each other. With all the meetings with the other lords you've had."

He nodded. "I got tired of it and I was glad in a way that they started a fight. I get to see my mate." He kissed her hand and looked at her giant stomach. "Who is that pup doing?"

She smiled running her hand over her stomach again. "I think its going to love fighting. Every time I stop my training now it moves and kicks. It's a feisty lil' thing." She smiled at him. "Oh yes. How has Sesshomaru's training and studying been going? Its been a while since I've seen him. When is he suppose to be back anyway?" She asked looking back in front of her sighing as sadness took her a little. "I miss training with him. He's a good partner to train with since you are always busy. But I think that it would be a bad idea now since I'm so close to whelping."

"Hai, that is a good idea and he's suppose to be back sometime this winter I think." He put his finger to his mouth pondering on the thought then shrugged it off. "It doesn't really matter though. All I know is that he's going to be back soon. I kind of miss him myself. He's done so much of my work that I'm having a hard time trying to get back on track again." He whimpered in disappointment and Solia started to laugh.

"You are so silly. You act like a child still." She laughed again looking at him. "But that's what makes you so interesting to be around. You're not as serious as other lords and the only time that you get serious is when you need to."

"I'm glad you approve. Most people complain whenever I act like a child. I wish my son would at least show a little emotion. Just enough so it won't embarrass him, and enough so that he can control himself. I think that's why he went to train. So he would be able to control himself again after that little incident with your father."

"…He deserved it. My father deserved to be attacked like that. That was so cruel of him to say. He just has no emotions or feelings for others. Thinking he can do anything and say anything he wants. He's done that to everyone. He's done it so many times to me that I lost it and… and I just wanted to have him feel the way I did when he did those things to me and others." Her face was plastered with many emotions. Sadness, anger, and revenge.

Inutaisho watched her and his eyes softened then filled with a sort of seriousness that she talked about. "I was angered at my Sesshomaru's action but I was also proud that he finally let loose his feelings. Even though it was for the wrong moment and wrong feeling. But I am glad that he let his door open that moment. I think that it might help bring him out again." He sighed. "But I wish that he would keep his anger caged and the rest of his emotions out. I miss his old ways before his mother died." He stopped closing his eyes trying to remember what he acted like at that time. "After that happened. His eyes just seemed out in space, especially after he saw her body. It s horrible. Her body was worse than those of my men of the war. Everything that I knew about her seemed to disappear when I saw her dead form."

Solia looked at him and put her hand on his shoulder, shaking him. "Inutaisho, of she brings that much pain to you then you should forget about her dead body and only the memories. Like when Sesshomaru was born. I bet you were the happiest ever!" She smiled. "Having that beautiful silver hair like yours' and a little fluffy tail. I bet he was cutest thing ever!"

She laughed as she looked at the one of his tails. "There may not have been two but still. Having a tail must be great!" She giggled then stopped as something came to her. "By the way. May I ask…" A soft redness came to her cheeks and she looked down to the ground. "May I ask if I can feel it. I've never felt one since I don't have one myself?" Her eyes turned up to him as he smiled.

"Sure." He unwounded I from his shoulder, letting it pool at his feet then lifted it up tickling her cheek with the tip.

A giggle came from her lips and she grabbed it gently, running her fingers through the soft fur. A small gasp came as she looked at him, petting his tail. "It's so soft! Oh kami I wish I had a tail like this! Its not fair." She whispered making him laugh.

"Its not as wonderful as you think. It gets in the way quite a lot and its hard to keep both tails and my hair clean." He glared at it and growled. If he would allow himself, he would be purring in a way because her petting of his tail felt so good. But he tried not to. He had managed all these years to control himself whenever someone touched his tails so he wouldn't look so weak as the Lord of the Western Lands. "And plus sometimes it has a mind of its own. Like when I was asleep with my other wife, it used to tickle her. She would always get mad at me and not it." He sighed shaking his head. "This may sound weird but I scolded my tails whenever they did that. She wasn't around when I did because I didn't want to look like a stupid dog in her eyes."

"That doesn't matter. Its hard taking care of my hair because if it's not treated right then it will come out like a bush after its dry. I always yelled and had a fuss with it since I asked everyone to not do it. I'm the only one that knows it well enough of what it wants." She growled herself as her eyes looked at a strand of hair in her face.

"You probably wouldn't want a tail then. It'll be the same way as the hair you have now."

"I don't care how it'll be. I don't care if it'll be hell to take care of it. I would have to deal with it because I've always wanted one." She sighed. "I wish there was a way to have one. Like a potion or something."

"Well, just ask the healer about it. She knows a lot about things like that. Plus with her messing around with everything I bet she can find a way so that you can grow one."

Solia's hands stopped stroking his tail and her eyes gleamed with excitement. "Really! You really think so?"

He nodded smiling. "Hai, with her I doubt that she can't make one. She's amazing."

Solia squealed in happiness and hugged his tail to her chest as she jumped up and down. "I'll go talk with her! I'll go talk with her now!" She let go and began to run off towards the infirmary but he stopped her by wrapping his tail around her upper body.

"I think she doesn't want to be disturbed right now. Remember that I had two lords fight. The smell of blood might make you sick and that would be bad. That's what I think though." He shrugged and brought her back in front of him.

She blinked and looked up at him. "What are you doing?" She asked as her hands went through his fur again.

He sighed and brought her closer holding her to him as he closed his eyes. "I haven't done this with anyone in a long time. Please don't get mad but I just want to hold you for a while. It feels good to." He leaned his chin on top of her head and she smiled laying her head against him. 

They were silent for a while until he thought of something to talk about. "So, do you like your surprise?"

"Hai. I was mad at first until I saw it. Thank you."

He laughed slightly shifting a little. "I was afraid at first when I thought about it. But I took my chances and tried it anyway. I'm glad I did now."

"Heh heh," She giggled as she leaned against him more, suddenly getting tired.

He looked down at her smiling. "You need to rest. Let's get you to your room." She nodded against him and picked her up holding her with his tail and his arms. She was heavy with herself and the pup. He walked down the hall towards the Royal wing of the palace with her against him asleep.

Inutaisho put her down on her bed, covering her up and kissed her forehead. He walked out closing the door behind her softly and noticed a guard walking towards him.

"Lord Inutaisho." He called out and bowed once he came close enough.

Inutaisho arched an eyebrow looking at him. "What is it Tagh?"

"I just came to tell you that Lord Sesshomaru is coming back. We got a letter just a few moments ago."

"Ah, I see. Thank you Tagh. You can return to your post now."

"Oh, one more thing my lord. Lord Sesshomaru has also written that he is bringing a young girl here. He says she was found near where he was training. She was extremely injured and that she doesn't know how she got there," the man paused for a moment and looked up thinking about something. "I think that is all that is important to say but I imagine that you would want to have the letter sire?"

Inutaisho nodded waving his hand to dismiss him after asking the question of if the letter was in his study. The guard said yes and bowed walking off. _'This is strange. Sesshomaru has never done this before. Most of the time he leaves the wounded in a village. He knows that its already crowded enough here. Hmm.'_ He scratched his head walking towards his study. "I'll talk to him later about this when he arrives. This is quite interesting what he's doing."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Mysterious Find

Sesshomaru sighed as he looked out the window of the mansion that he was staying at for training. It wasn't far from where he wanted to actually train so that was why he chose to stay here.

To himself, he didn't actually have to train but he wanted to get away from Solia before he lost control of himself all the way. That was one thing he didn't want to happen while she was the Lady of his father's house. Ever since she had come here, he couldn't stop thinking of her face- her beautiful childish face. She had somehow put herself in everything that he had been doing while he was there. Now he was finally free of her curse or spell he called it and it pleased him a lot.

After a few weeks of being at the mansion, where he would live for about a year, he realized with shock that he wasn't thinking of the bitch for once. That thought had made him happy that whole day. He guessed that it had been all the hard-ass training that he had been doing. Concentrating with everything that he had to keep her out of his mind and go over and over the objectives of his early training lessons of his childhood. The ones that helped him keep all his emotions inside after his mother had died in the horrible incident.

Now Sesshomaru was concentrating on work and lessons of the mind. Reading over battles and battle strategies had helped with it because it had him picture an image of each scene that he read. Most of them had been boring but a few had caught his interest because of their mentioning of assassins being used for most phases of the battle. A few names appeared that he recognized as ones that still lived. Most were famous now and he guessed that was with the battles that they helped with. Some of them now were over 3000 years old. It had him amazed but also scared him- not that it would scare him easily. But it made him cautious when he would become a lord.

He was reading one of those battles that had interested him from the start. He was almost done and after ward he would start the training for the day again. It was still the morning. The soldiers that he trained with couldn't understand how he could wake so early and have enough energy to still beat their sorry asses. But they knew the reasons why he was so much stronger than them. One was that they were so young and he wasn't and the other was that they were new soldiers. He meant to bring the new soldiers because he had wanted to train them and maybe teach them some discipline from someone much older and experienced than themselves.

Sesshomaru scanned over the last few words then sighed closing his book as he looked outside over the land. The trees and grasses were starting to loose their green color as it turned into the cool fall. He could see, though, in the mountains that it was snowing there already. He would have to dress a little warm today since he was going there.

A knock came at his door and he looked back at it admitting the maid in. She bowed her head. "Would you like anything to eat Lord Sesshomaru?"

"Hai, whatever you have. You know how I like my food." He waved her out and stood walking over to the dresser pulling out a training kimono used for the early winter. He slipped out of his sleeping hakama and into his usual white one, sitting back down at the small desk in front of the window. He leaned back against the sill closing his eyes as he let the morning light flit past him into the room. It would a while before she wold have his food ready so he wanted to rest his eyes and mind before the long training.

He woke when another knock came at his door and let her in. He bowed his head to her and went back to his bed eating. After that, he and the soldiers headed out into the mountains. Once they got there Sesshomaru told them to pair in twos and fight each other in a mock battle.

Sesshomaru watched them on top a boulder and sighed watching their movements. They were pretty good for beginners but they need to train harder so they could become faster. They movements were so easy to read and follow. He thought that they were as slow as when he was a pup in his training.

If this didn't get interesting soon then he was going to go for a walk after telling a far superior fighter than them to train them harder. That seemed to come true when nothing had changed in the last thirty minutes. He looked at the sergeant and pointed at the men as he walked off. He wanted to find somewhere for himself to train. A way better place than to be around the idiots of that particular field that he came from.

His eyes glanced around the surroundings of the snow-topped rocks and sighed. Maybe if some demon or demon slayer he would get a good fight out of it. But that would only happen if they happen to come across his tracks that he meant to put there for them. "It would be a miracle if I found something in these mountains." He said to himself and crossed his arms bored now. "I wold like to fight an ice youkai for those are fin to fight. Maybe a group of them wouldn't be so bad. Everyone that I've encountered have been weak."

He saw a pair of tracks but blinked stopping as he looked at the blood that went with them- quite a lot of blood. He sniffed the air for the kind of youkai and caught a fox's scent. _'Hmmm. Seems that it was prey and it escaped.'_ He followed it now looking ahead for any sign of the fox.

Whimpering came to his ears and they perked a little as he turned a corner. They became louder once the fox heard his crunching footsteps.

"Please, let me go. I…I didn't do anything."

Sesshomaru stopped looking at the woman that was curled in a ball in an iced corner. Her clothes were covered with quite a bit of blood. It seemed to be others besides her own blood though, and her hair seemed to be all covered in it. "Don't be afraid." He tried to say in a soothing voice.

"Go away." She whispered in a fear filled voice.

Sighing, he walked towards her, kneeling just a few feet away from her. "What happened?" He put a hand on her shoulder.

She shivered and whined, her ears flattening against her head. She looked up letting her green eyes meet his and she blinked. "Who are you? …You're… You're not them." She stuttered a little.

"I'm a friend. Don't worry. I won't hurt you." He said and forced a small smile on his face. "Here… let's go clean that wound up." He held a hand out to her.

She chewed on her lip as she eyed him to make sure that he wasn't one of the men that were after her. Her decision was made when she smelt that he was telling the truth and nodded putting her small, cold hand in his.

He pulled her up still holding her hand. _'She's too cold. She must have been here a while. We'll get her warmed up. I won't let her die if something that happened in these lands of my father's.'_ He thought looking her over for any major wounds. "Can you walk?"

She shivered and shook her head. "Its cold." Was all she said as she rubbed her arms and shook a little as a wind blew past.

Sesshomaru took his out layer of his kimono off and put it over her then picked her up. She blinked at this looking up at him. "Hold on," he told her and took off having her yelp at the sudden movement. A puff of cold, white snow billowed behind him in a puff.

She closed her eyes and clutched his clothing with her eyes shut tight. _'Where is he going?'_

He gave a short whistle and slowed down to a walk after a few minutes of running.

Nothing happened until another puff was seen by him and an shadow of a male showed. "What is my lord?" A soldier asked in a yell, slowing down also then saw the child. "Oh, I see." He muttered under his breath and looked back to his lord.

"Take her and make sure that she's okay." He ordered looking down at her who was still clinging to him. He shook her gently telling her tat they had stopped and said, "Where did you come from?"

She jumped a little and looked up at him then back down. "Somewhere… Somewhere in the mountains. It's the only town in the… in the middle."

He nodded and put her in the other's arms. Looking over the surroundings to see where he was, he took off where he thought the center of the mountains was.

Both of them watched him leave then he looked at her. "What happened?"

She shifted in his arms bringing the kimono closer. "We were attacked and I escaped by hiding under some bodies. I stayed there until it was clear and quiet. But after I got out of my destroyed town they saw me and … and started to chase me. I was grabbed by one and clawed on my side." She rubbed her side as the man's face looked worried for a second until she said this, "Its not that bad though, its pretty much a scratch and I got him off with my wind powers."

He arched an eyebrow smiling, "You're a wind youkai?"

She nodded and blushed a little. "Um… can you put me down please?" She asked softly and glanced at him.

He laughed a little and put her down. "Come. We'll go get that 'scratch' checked. You never know if that youkai had a poison on his claws."

She nodded and followed him through the rest of the mountains until they came to a group of men that were training. She watched them but looked down not liking the gazing they gave her and walked closer to the male that was guiding her. He told them to stay here and train till he came back. He grabbed a horse and walked over to her. "It might be a while till we get to the castle so we'll need this. Do you know how to ride?"

Blinking, she nodded grabbing another horse's reins. "Hai…" She stated and hoped on circling her horse around him to show.

He grinned and got on is then turned around towards the trail to the mansion.

Sesshomaru ran down a trail that he figured that went towards the center of the mountains. _'Who would want to attack a town in the middle of nowhere?'_ He questioned glancing around him for anything out of the ordinary then took in the winter air for any scents. He stopped as a few came to him and then became stronger the farther he ran. _'This must be the way. There's no other that has a scent this strong on it.'_

He looked around as he sensed something coming near. The scent of a fox came and he arched a thin eyebrow and began walking towards the shadow of the object coming towards him. "Halt!" He commanded to the person and it slowed down till it got close enough to him.

Now the scent of blood was emitting from what looked to be a woman. Her green eyes looking him over and she growled catching his scent- that of a dog's. "What do you want dog? I'm busy!" She growled out, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes making her lips into a thin line.

"You are not someone who can speak so rudely to this Sesshomaru that way," he barked narrowing his own eyes at her then added for emphasis, "woman."

The line of her lips disappeared and turned into a big O as she now remembered who he was. She bowed low and apologized. "I'm sorry Lord Sesshomaru, but my entire isn't very pleased right now. Please forgive my rudeness and lack of formality."

"Explain," he said, forgetting about her apology.

"Hai. Some of us found out about this woman's true identity that has been living with us for five years now. We've learned that she's an assassin and she's training her daughter to be one."

"How did you come across this?"

"One of my children went over to get something and heard one of the conversations. She said she heard that the woman was going to the castle of the Western Lord for a job. She told me this as soon as possible."

"And whom was she going to assassinate?"

"I don't know my lord." She paused now just thinking of something. "It doesn't really amaze me now but it also adds up to when two men came to her a couple nights before today."

"What did they look like," he questioned.

I don't know. I just saw the outlines of them and their armor." She paused then finally added, "they were dragon youkai from the south because they smelt foreign to this part of the country."

He nodded and turned on his heal gracefully but looked back at her out of the corner of his eye. "What did you do to the mother?"

"We killed her."

"Good." He stated without emotion and started to walk off.

"Wait! Please be careful my lord! Her daughter escaped and we can't find her. She's around seventeen in mortal years with green hair and silver eyes. She's a dog and an excellent fighter."

"Arigato." He bowed his head a little in thanks for the information then disappeared in a puff of smoke. _'That girl I found. She didn't look anything like what the fox described but her scent was swallowed by the smell of fox blood. I can't even tell if she's a fox or something else.'_ He pondered flying through the fogged air on his own cloud. He had learned this new ability a few weeks ago and it was very useful now for traveling. He was becoming quite accommodated to it now.

It took him thirty minutes for him to return to the training grounds where his men were and told them to return to the castle. He would have gone faster, but he was thinking about what he should do with the new acquired information and then decided that he would think about it later when he would tell everyone to return back to the castle. He knew they must have been worried a little because he had been gone for over three hours and he had never been gone that long before.

Now that everyone was gone though, he headed off into the clouds to ponder on questions that swam inside his head like a wild storm. There were so many, yet so many more popped up when he started to thing about just one.

"What can I do," he questioned himself in anger, letting all his hidden emotions go and escape the cold mask that covered them. He was alone after all- high up in the mountains where only powerful bird youkai would be. But here there were weak bird youkai, since the Western Lands were mostly made up of cat, fox, and rarely pure dog youkai.

"If that is the daughter of the assassin, that was going to kill someone at the castle, then why would she do it? Doesn't she know that she won't get away with it that easily with all the experienced men around. Father would sure as hell know what an assassin would do and he probably knows what they look and act like. He is, after all, over 1500 years old."

He sighed heavily in frustration and sat down on the fluffy substance beneath him. He now knew that he was going to be questioning this matter as long as the girl that he found lived and breathed in the castle grounds. He was also wondering if he should kill her or have her questioned by one the women interrogators.

"Maybe when I return back to the main castle, I should tell father." His chewed on his lower lip hard now thinking about Inutaisho would do after he had told him. "Would he kill her on site when she was brought to him? Would he throw her in the dungeon? I think he would question her since she is a woman and he always wants to treat women carefully." He thought about what he would do then finally came to a conclusion, "I'll just tell him. Its better since if he found out about her then he would probably think that I want him dead."

He nodded in agreement with himself and stood back up ready to go back to the mansion since it was no use to question about the girl, except if he wanted to make it worst.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 (arrivals and friends)

Her eyes shone in a void of excitement for what was happening now and excitement for what was going to happen later. But for one she couldn't believe the great Lord Sesshomaru, son of the better Lord Inutaisho of the western Lands, had let his ability slip for a mere child. She couldn't believe he ad lost his sense of smell for if a person was lying or not.

The soldier took her to the infirmary where Suna saw to her wounds.

"Well, you don't seem to have any serious wound. Only a few scratches." The woman said calmly straightening her dress as she stood with her hands on her hips. "Why don't you go take a bath to clean off all that shit then the officer can watch over you till Lord Sesshomaru arrives back."

She nodded and looked over herself as she stood. "Umm… ma'am, can I have some clean clothes? These are rather uncomfortable."

Her eyes gleamed and a big smile snaked onto her lips. "Of coarse dear! What kind do you want!"

"Umm…anything I guess." She stated then arched a dirt-covered eyebrow when the healer took off out of the room. "What the hell? What is she doing?" She asked herself jumping a little when she saw some clothes thrown into the doorway and she walked towards the door. "Umm… miss?"

The throwing of clothes stopped and the healer's head appeared in the doorway. "Hai?"

"Umm, what are you doing?"

"I'm finding you some clothes! What do you think I'm doing, abandoning you?"

A blush crossed her cheeks and she looked down. "I was just wondering because you suddenly disappeared." She looked back up but she was gone.

"HAI! That's it! This'll look wonderful on you!" Suna squealed and appeared in the doorway holding up a beautiful kimono in front of her towards the girl to see if the color would go good with her complexion. "It may be a little too fancy but it'll do because this is all I have that is nicer than the clothes I work in."

She admired the kimono that was shoved into her arms and held it up to look at it again. It had small birds on it with a few flowers too. All of them were a bluish color while the background of the kimono was a yellow, not too bright but just enough brightness to make it elegant.

"I don't need something like this."

"Take it! You'll look beautiful in it and maybe have Lord Sesshomaru smile for once too!" She laughed at a image of him smiling appearing in her head and then shook her head. "Like that'll happen." She said,, her voice now showing her disbelieve.

She arched an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side in confusion. "He seemed so nice when he helped me and I think he even smiled." She stated trying to convince her that he was a nice person, but now she couldn't recall that it ever happened.

Suna's eyes widened and gawked. "Sesshomaru…Mr. Cold-Mask… smiling?! The only time I've ever seen his change in acting around people is when he was at the castle with Lady Solia. She changed his a lot till he finally realized that he wasn't his usual cold self. He only came here to train and try to get her out of his mind for good."

"But I swear he was smiling!" Exclaimed the young girl.

"You must have imagined it."

"But…"

The healer interrupted. "He's never done anything but keep that stupid look on his face that has no emotions. Ever since he's got here he's been his cold self when his mother died."

She nodded looking down. "I see."

"Good. Now let's go have you take a bath before he gets back. " She smirked and grabbed the girl's hand waking out of the infirmary and towards the baths. She blinked then shrugged, letting her drag her around.

When they got close enough, she could start smelling the scent of fresh, hot spring water. "How big is it Lady Suna?" She asked innocently.

"The spring? Its giant but I bet that Lord Sesshomaru won't mind that you use it once." She giggled and stopped telling the guards that she was a guest of Sesshomaru's.

They nodded and one opened a door for them and when they got inside Suna let go of her and headed behind a screen. All the while, the guest's face and body didn't move from her place that Suna let go of her. Her eyes were wide, mouth prided open, and arms limp beside her.

A large pool of hot water steamed up and around everything in the room. Plants that were adapted to the moist, hot environment were everywhere; but the ones, very few, stood by windows that were open. A changing screen was in front of the pool, to block people's vision that came in while someone was bathing. Towels and few robes stood by another screen ready for the next guest.

"Hey girl! Are you going to bath or not!" Suna called out her as she set some bottles down by the edge of the spring and climbed into the steamy liquid after she disrobed.

The girl nodded after a big jump of being brought back to reality. "Gomen," she said silently blushing a little from her reaction.

"Hehe… you're a silly girl. Now come and enjoy the wonderful hotness. This pretty much the only thing that you can enjoy in the boredom palace!" She sighed in depression then in satisfaction as she sat down in the water.

The other girl stripped too and you heard a heavy sigh form her also. After they ere both situated, Suna finally decided to ask her a question.

"So, what's your name?"

"Um…," she chewed on her lower lip trying to think up a name. "It's…It's Yuri."

"Yuri? Well nice to meet you."

"You too."

"Hehe." She grinned as another question came to her mind. "So..," she leaned towards Yuri, "So what do you think of Sesshomaru when you saw him? Isn't he the cutest thing ever? He's always been cute but he was cuter when he was a pup!" She laughed and pretended to hold a pup in her arms, which Yuri was sure that it was a babe Sesshomaru.

"So you watched him?" She asked, trying to avoid her question.

"Oh, hai! I'm way older than him! By 900 years! He was so adorable but he was a pain in the ass sometimes with his stubbornness and those damn claws. He got even worse when he got older and found out who he was. He started to try to boss me afterwards. I taught him a lesson." She rocked her head forward and back in a victorious manner.

Yuri ached an eyebrow at her and her spilling of his secrets. "What did you do?" She asked some more leaning forward.

"I whooped his ass, telling him as long s I'm the elder and him the child, then he can't do anything. Not until he became lord or an adult." She grinned evilly as she did another movement of her head in a victory.

Yuri laughed. "But did his father do anything to you when he found out about this? Sesshomaru did tell didn't he?"

"Hai, he did but Inutaisho didn't do anyhting."

"That's good. I would hate for a nice person like you to get hurt."

"Aw! You're so sweet!" Exclaimed the healer as she wrapped her arms around her neck.

"……"

Suna let her go and glared at her just realizing what she was doing. "You still haven't answered me question. Are you trying to avoid it?"

"Umm…No! Of coarse not!" A small blush appeared on her already rosy cheeks.

"Hehe…yeah right! Now tell me what you think of him. A woman of my age wants to know what youngsters think these days."

"O-okay." She stuttered, nervous about how she would react to her words. "Well…," she started , looking down at her hands underneath the water that were now playing with each other.

"Hai…"

"He…He seemed nice…really nice when I saw him. He appeared like an angel and his hands were so gentle when he picked me up. It was one of the best moments of my life."" This was the truth- all of it- except for it being the best moment. Indeed it was pretty damn wonderful, but the most wonderful moment at the moment was when he had fell for her trickery and convinced him what happened. She blushed hard and bit her lip trying to make it look convincing.

"So you like him?" Asked the healer interested.

"Umm…I-I guess so. But um…can we not talk about this any longer?"

"Feh…sure."

"Arigato." Yuri bowed her head a little and smiled then looked up towards the door blinking.

Suna noticed and shook her head. "Seems like he's here already. Get dressed before he looses his patients and busts in here. He seems to have an attitude right now." She stepped out of the water and grabbed a few towels and Yuri followed behind her. They both started to dry off quickly as they followed his movements coming towards where they were.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Takoku stood outside the bathing area and growled, his patients growing. He needed to talk to Suna about the girl that was with her at the moment. _'I can't believe that she would trust her as soon as she got here. Is the bitch that convinc-'_ His thoughts stopped as the doors opened and they came out, his gaze was hooked to the stranger and so called 'assassin' by the woman that warned him what she might be.

Suna saw that he was acting abnormal and grinned as she followed his gaze to the girl beside her. "Lord Takoku. I didn't know that you would be here so soon." She said, starting the conversation.

He arched a thin silver eyebrow at her and turned his head to her. "I didn't know that I would get done with investigating the lands around where the girl was found and where she said that she was attacked at." He informed her, keeping his mask on while telling her with his eyes that he needed to talk with her in private.

Suna got the message, since knowing him for so long she had taught herself to read his eyes and face easily. "I see. Well…" She turned to Yuri and smiled once again grabbing her wrist. "I'll show you your room if Lord Takoku doesn't mind me taking you away." She said taking a glance at him.

He nodded and she dragged her away towards the East wing where all the guests rooms were. Yuri watched both her and him, blinking in a confused manner at what the hell was going on.

Takoku watched the girl from his place then turned on his heal, walking down the hall to his room. He would ask a servant on the way there to tell Suna to come to his room.

Suna came as requested and crossed her arms as she stood behind the cushion that he was sitting at reading.

"You asked for me." She stated to him just in case that he was too caught up in the book that he was reading.

There was a small pregnant pause but he shifted and closed the book with his finger still inside keeping his place. "Hai, I needed to speak to you about the girl that was brought here."

She arched an eyebrow and walked over to a pile of the cushions and grabbed one throwing it in front of the one that he was on. "And…" She said telling him continue.

He looked at her with a serious look. "I know you well Suna and what I'm going to tell you is threatening to us but don't be rash. Okay?"

A bored look told her that she was listening and that she would listen and obey.

"When I was investigating on the girl…" He started to explain and his tale telling took a few dozen minutes.

After the whole thing was explained, she was looking at him with her hands clenched. "I can't believe it. You just let her come here without telling anyone about this." She growled at him. Others would have been punished probably for this but she was an exception since she had taught him a lot of things and that she had watched him since he was a small pup.

"I know Suna. But I'm trying to keep this from going out all over the castle and then to her. I will tell my father but I needed to tell you this because you have been trusted in the family for a long time." He stated closing his eyes as he felt her anger and understood why.

"You better tell him, but tell him that he shouldn't tell Lady Solia this. She should not be trusted quite yet. She after all the daughter of the man that also started that horrible war."

"I know." He said softly.

"What are you going to do with her?"

"I'm still trying to decide on that problem."

"You better make up that choice soon before we go home or else I'll kill her right on the spot."

"Hai, I know you will do that."

There was another long pause until Suna broke it with her suggestion. "Just throw her in the dungeon. Or better yet, take her to Senoi to have her torture till she spits it out. And if she isn't what you and that woman said then just erase her memory."

"We will see."

"So what will you do while you are still here?"

"I was thinking on just putting a few guards with her wherever she goes. I'll tell them of what she said happen and that it's for her protection." As if he knew what she was going to ask next to said, "I'll tell the same to her."

"That's a good idea but make sure that she doesn't find out what you know about her. Assassins are the trickiest type. Be sure that she is only in the areas where she won't hear anything important."

"I know Suna." He growled a little at her, telling her to stop.

Suna rolled her eyes at him and stood putting the cushion back. "Well, we'll talk about this again with your father. But I'm going to bed. Have a nice sleep Takoku." She bowed to him and a friendly manner than walked out, back to her room.

Takoku watched her leave and turned to the fire that he sat beside. This situation was going to be difficult just as he thought before. He closed the book after putting a scrap piece of paper in it and laid it on the low table. Standing, he walked over to his bed and stripped of his clothing, laying down and quickly fell asleep from the recent events.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Takoku, Suna, and Yuri arrived home in a short few days along with the soldiers that he wanted to bring with him. Solia stood at the top of the ivy covered wall gleaming down at him as they passed through the gates. You couldn't see from the wall that stood in front of her but she was much bigger than they had last seen her. Her stomach at the least was the biggest with the child that grew inside her.

Takoku nodded to her as his hello and Suna cheerfully did her's. Yuri just arched an eyebrow at the woman at the top.

When they stopped in front of the long steps to the doors of the castle, Solia was there at the bottom.  
"Welcome back Takoku and Suna!" She exclaimed, smiling big. She hugged Suna when she got out of the carriage and blinked when no one else came out of it after Takoku.

"Where is the girl that I heard you were bringing here?" She asked, getting on the tip of her toes and looking over his shoulder.

Suna laughed at her. "Lady Solia, you are so silly. You are a youkai are you not? Don't you smell her?"

Solia blinked then smiling laughing. "Oh oh, I think so." She glared at her, putting her hands on her now wide hips in a playful way. "I just think that these last few months have made me quite odd."

"I can understand my lady," Suna agreed smiling at her. Takoku and Suna mentally rolled their eyes at their lady.

Solia lifted her nose in the air and sniffed. "Oh there she is." She said and moved her way between Takoku and Suna to the carriage. She peered inside and smiled. "Don't be shy young lady. Be strong and face your fears!" She laughed and used the edge of the door to help herself inside. "Come on." She said sweetly as she pried Yuri of her spot.

Yuri swallowed and looked outside.

"Aww! Come on! It can't be that scary!" She told her and pulled her out of the dreary carriage and into the sunlight. "Just come inside and you'll calm down!"

Yuri covered her eyes for a second from the light then slowly looked up and gazed in awe at the mansion.

Vines covered the giant palace with small blooming flowers. Small bushes lined the aisle of stairs that lead to the entrance door and guards were lined up all the way to the door also. The windows' shutters were open letting in the bright light of the day. Flowers were being attended to by the gardeners and had smiles on their faces as if they enjoyed the duty that they were given.

"See! It isn't that bad! Now come my new guest!" Solia exclaimed, pushing her up the stairs, past the guards, and into the entrance room.

"How can she so excited?" Takoku asked Suna.

"Don't you see? She's pregnant." She explained, as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

Takoku looked at her with an arched eyebrow. "I.. I knew that." Suna laughed walking up the stairs and Takoku followed.

Solia was showing Yuri the castle, everything from the baths to the room that she would stay in to the training grounds of the soldiers. All the while Yuri was patiently quiet, and if needed, nodded after what Solia said.

She thought it was useless for her to show her everything; since she would find out on her own where everything was. But she wouldn't say that out loud because she figured out that the damn hyper woman was the Lady of the House from how the people they came across treated her, and she didn't want to piss her off by telling her that she was doing something useless. That would get her in trouble and ruin her attempts to accomplish her mission for her mother.

So she just decided to follow her and ignore her, just so it would get over with.

"So you are telling me that the girl is an assassin?"

"Hai."

"How did you come to this conclusion?"

"A woman from her village told me sir."

"And why do you trust her?" He asked confused with his son's mind of how this came to be.

"She smelt of the truth and not lies, father." Takoku said in a little irritated voice.

Takashi sighed leaning back against the windowsill as he tilted his head back to look at the clear sky.  
"Why didn't you tell me this in the letter?"

"I was afraid that someone would come across it and read it. I didn't want this to get out to the others and I want to know if this is true with the girl." He looked at his father. "But if you are worried about what she could do then you can lock her up in the dungeon."

"Iie. That isn't required."

"I can watch what activities she does then? How about that father?" He asked.

"That can be done and maybe a guard to make sure that nothing gets away from us."

Takoku nodded in agreement and stood, giving his father a quick bow then walked out of the study.

Everyone was asleep now and the castle was quiet with no sound except for the footsteps of the night guards. Yuri had two guards outside of her room to make sure she stayed there. One was there just in case something happened and the other was the one to follow her around all day and half the night.

She was confused at first why they would give her one but Takoku gave her a reasonable explanation why and she accepted it.

Takoku and everyone that knew that Yuri was an assassin kept their guards up and senses open ready for if she tried anything.

Solia was sleeping peacefully beside her husband, but every once in a while would wake up with a pain in her abdomen and she was worried about it now as it got worse and worse. When she couldn't stand it any longer, she got up with a thin sleeping kimono and walked out onto the balcony to stare at the deep blue sky filled with the twinkling stars that she loved so much now.

She smiled as she remembered her last moment with the man she loved and hugged her close to bursting belly. The pup instead kicked and she giggled a little because she felt like it felt the joy that she remembered.

A low growl escaped her lips as she felt the pain again but more than ever and she went to her knees. It was never longer than a couple seconds and now she was worried the most. Solia wondered if she should go get Suna since she didn't know what this enormous amount of pain meant. She nodded at that thought and slowly stood, still clutching her stomach and wincing.

As she passed Takashi, laying on the bed, she made sure to hide her scent of pain so it wouldn't wake him. He knew that she was feeling pains so he was a little over protective for her since he had been through the pregnancy thing before. She walked to the door and slowly and quietly slid the door open. Before she stepped through, she made sure that he was still asleep. After this, she walked towards Suna's room and as quickly as she could because the pains were getting worse now.

A soft knock was all that was needed to wake her and have her come to the door. She slid open the door a gave a tired look at her lady. "What's wrong mi'lady?" She asked in a tired voice.

A wince gave her the answer and Suna blinked. "It's time already?" She paused and shook her head. "Of coarse.. it's been long enough." She whispered to herself and stepped beside her lady and took her gently around the waist and Solia's arm around her neck as she guided her inside her quarters. Leading her to her futon and laying her down, she ran out to get a few girls to help her for what would come.

Solia was now panting and was clutching the sheets and bent over in double as a big strike of pain to her back and all over her body. She wasn't ready for this but was ready to get rid of the pains that were coming. She clutched at the covers more and whined a little until a small hand came to hold her hand. She calmed a little but only enough to know that she wasn't alone in this.

The pains didn't subside as she felt water flow over her legs and she knew that her water had broke. Now would come the most painful part of the birthing process and she knew this.

Hours later after the screams of the lady of the house had stopped- a screaming pup's voice came and a panting tired mother was laying on the futon tired as hell. Her clothes were soaked to the core with sweat and her breaths were uneven but was slowly getting back to normal now that she was done with the task of birth. And slowly she drifted into a nice sleep as Suna was tending to the newborn pup with a big small.

"It's a girl." She told herself and glanced at her sleeping lady. "She will be pleased when she wakes."

"I know she will." Takashi's voice came as he stepped inside and he walked over to Suna and looked at the pup. He had been awake since the screaming started but knew not to disturb them but was aware of what was going on. He looked at the little pup with his sleeve over his nose. The blood and liquids from birthing still made him gag but it didn't keep him from seeing a new pup- even though it wasn't his. He would love her though because she loved his wife enough.

"She is fine, I presume?" He asked as he knelt beside her and took his sleeve away to hold his arms out for the pup.

"Hai, my lord." Suna reassured him as she held the now sleeping pup to him and smiled as she made a small whine of disturbance.

Takashi laughed at her and looked at her little markings that were barely visible. They would come whole once she was a few days old and he smiled a little more as he saw that she had a small moon on her forehead but it was turned the opposite way.

He handed the newborn pup back to Suna and sighed. "Try to clean her as best you can and the stench here too. I know that you wouldn't even be able to stand it either." She nodded with a small smile. He kneeled beside Solia and moved a piece of her hair from her face than planted a gentle kiss upon her forehead. "Sleep well." He whispered to her and a small smile came to her lips.

He stood back up and looked at Suna, "Have a good sleep. Whenever she wakes, tell her that she came pick her name." She tilted his head to her slightly then walked out of the room, back to his.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 10

The curtains didn't help that well when it came to the bright sun that was now shining on the face of a very sleepy woman. Her eyelashes fluttered a little as the brightness was finally getting to her and she turned on her side with a small moan during the move. Her body hurt like hell and she felt like she was going to die now as the morning light didn't help with her headache.

Growling lightly, she tossed some more and opened her eyes looking around at the room. She blinked as she ran her hand down her side and to her used-to-be puffed up stomach. She shot up and looked down blinking more when she saw that the mound of her pup was gone. Narrowing her eyes, she thought about what happened that night before and blinked when her thoughts came to one conclusion- she had her baby.

Her head shot around and saw a woman sleeping and she narrowed her eyes for not being awake and watching her pup.

Now her eyes were searching desperately for her pup and she turned around and saw a pile of blankets and soft breathing of a girl coming from them. Getting to her knees, she crawled over to the pile and a big smile cracked onto her face.

She slowly extended a small hand and touched the soft skin of her baby girl. She was so happy that she was alive because it was common that the first pup of a woman didn't survive and she used both hands now to pick her up gently and cradle her.

The babe whined a little and her cute little button nose twitched as she smelt the air. When she caught the scent of her mother, not someone else, she opened her eyes showing bright blue eyes and she gave a loud 'coo' that only a pup would make.

"Oh! You are so sweet!" Solia exclaimed and she rocked the child in her arms and kissed her forehead.

Another 'coo' came from her and Solia laughed.

Solia sat there for seeming like minutes playing with her hands and making noises that made the young pup squeal at, but it was actually 2 hours before she stopped as the door to the room slid open. The new mother looked up and blinked when she saw Suna with a platter of food.

The old healer smiled as she walked in. "It's good to see you awake but aren't you tired? It's only been half a day since you had the adorable thing and most woman get a day or two of sleep after this drama."

Solia shook her head as turned back to her babe. "I feel fine, but thank you." She assured her before giving her girl another kiss and laying her down. Of course she cried and she blinked before putting her finger in her mouth making her stop crying and suckle on her finger. She turned to Suna growling a little. "But I would like to know why you left a girl in here far away from my girl and allowed her to sleep."

The woman stopped in mid-pour of the tea, and looked at the girl that was sleeping still. Now mad and standing up, she walked over to her and kicked her side. "Wake up girl!"

The dead asleep girl jumped and shot up, her eyes staring up to her boss. When she saw the pissed look of her, she surely knew that she was in deep trouble. "Lady S-Suna! W-What-" She began to stutter before she was slapped.

"This is the last time that I have warned you to not fall asleep during the watch of a newborn. I told you a million times that you can never leave a pup alone just after its born because it could die from coughing or anything else!" She grabbed the back of her head and tugged her onto the feet and pulled her to the door. "Go find some other castle to work in because you are done here! Be out of here before lunch!" She barked at her as she threw her out.

Solia looked back to her girlsighing. "Suna…can you watch her instead of anyone else? I trust you the most because you are older. No offense," a smile crossed her lips and she stood after laying the pup down in her blanket-made bed.

"I can try but you know how busy I can get. You'll have to watch her if I ever get busy enough to not watch her."

"I understand," replied the new mother.

"But so what do you want her name to be? You have to have one by now." She commented changing the subject.

"Hehe.. I was thinking about that while you were gone. I was thinking of a simple name but not sure which one would be suitable for her."

There was a long silence while the two women thought of a name. They both were looking at the sleeping child than Suna suddenly gasped, making Solia jump.

"I've thought of one!" The healer exclaimed joyfully with a big grin on her face.

"Let's hear it then."

"I was thinking Eythna. In an old language in a foreign land there was a rare thing called the 'Spring of Youth.' I think that's perfect for her since she won't grow old as fast as those mortals."

Solia nodded. "Hai. That's a perfect name." She whispered moving her finger gently across the pup's forehead. "You'll be called Eythna."

"A perfect name for the daughter of Lord Takashi I say." Solia didn't answer to that but sat there staring at her child trying to pick out the resemblance to her father. The girl had the moon that he had but not his eyes nor hair but were the color of her's.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 A Little Closer

"WAHHHH!!! Mommy!" Cried a child from a room down the halls and to the ears of a mother. She sighed heavily as she rubbed her forehead. Her daughter had just started her teaching of being a young lady and how to act as a princess. But the mother was getting irritated that her daughter wouldn't give up her pursuit of wanting to be with the older men in their training grounds so she was being told over and over that she wasn't allowed to do that any longer. Well, you can just guess how the tomboy girl took that and since she was already spoiled in doing and going where ever she wanted then that made it worse in her reaction to the commands.

Solia wanted to run to her daughter and take her from the woman that caused her to cry but knew that she would be told back by the teacher that she wasn't a good mother nor deserved the spot of the Lady of the Western Lands. She also knew that Eythna had had to endure this torture to make her into a strong woman as herself.

"Be quiet child or I'll tell your father that you aren't doing your duties!" The teacher yelled at her and clamped her hand over the wide-open mouth.

The child hushed for a few seconds and blinked looking down at the hand and growled biting her hand. A loud scream of pain came down the same hall and stopped. Curses and yelling came next after the small girl as she rushed down the hall towards where she knew her mother was.

She yanked the door open and ran in to the window where her mother/guardian angle sat and clambered into her lap and let strong arms encircle her. "Mommy! She's being mean again to me!" She whined into her chest.

"Eythna, what have I told you. You are going to have to do it and plus your father said that if you don't do it than he'll get a stricter teacher for you instead. Do you want that to happen honey?"

Another whine was her answer and the teary eyes of her daughter came to face her. "But- but…. m-mom." She stuttered to say. "Even he d-doesn't like her. He s-said it h-himself."

"He has?" Solia arched an eyebrow at her and sighed. "Well, let me say this then. If you don't be a good girl like I asked you to than you won't get any treat till you start acting like I told you to. Understood?"

"But mo-" she began to say but was interrupted.

"Understood?" Solia questioned again.

The girl buried her face in her mother chest again as she nodded her head. "Hai…" Came a muffled reply from the princess.

"Good, now go apologize to your teacher before she comes looking for you and gets even madder," she told her and stood her up on her feet whipping her face and pushing her gently to the door.

"You own me mommy."

A chuckle came from Solia and smiled. "Hai hai." She stood and walked her out and watched her go down the hall slowly back to the room of doom. Once she far enough that she knew she wouldn't run away, she turned down the hall to the East Wing where Takashi's study was.

She knocked lightly on the door and went inside when he said for her to enter. She strolled over to his side and stood there waiting for him to get done with the papers he was working on.

That lasted a few dozen minutes or two but she was patient now about waiting. But once he laid his feather and plugged the ink, she gave a hard glare to him.

Takashi blinked astonished at her look. "What did I do this time?" She didn't answer except the crossing of her arms instead. "Don't tell me it was something Eythna said about what I said." He sighed when she nodded. _'I told her not to tell her those things.'_

"Don't try to convince her that she should act so horrible to that poor woman just because you don't like her. You know she listens to you." She stated to him still having a little of her glare still.

She saw a smirk and took his face in her hand making him face her fully when he turned from her. "What's so funny?"

His golden eyes met her's in an amused way. "I don't convince her anything. I only say the truth I how I feel about things. She does what she wants with what I tell her… like acting on that feeling of how I feel."

"Quit telling her stuff like that then if you know what you are doing. I don't want her to have to get hurt for how you feel about things."

"Hai, hai. I'll try next time not to say anything." Taking her hand and making her sit on his lap, he gave her a kiss on her cheek to reassure her.

Solia blinked and smiled at him. "You're so sweet. But you better keep it or you'll start teaching her yourself." She threatened laughing at the end, which ruined her threat.

"Feh! If I taught her than she'll be taught how to fight like a man! Maybe she'll be as strong as you."

"Maybe, but I don't want her to be teased whenever she does her training on the dojo with those days."

"She's a tough girl, don't worry about her. She's told me already that she got teased before whenever you let her run around the training grounds with those boys. She told me that she doesn't mind because she ignores it all." Inutaisho grinned and laughed out loud. "She even said that when she gets tired of it, she'll just go to Rousel and tell him that he needed to train them harder.

Now Solia was laughing as he gave his because of the brave girl they had and her attitude she had towards boys.

Standing after she gave him a soft kiss back, Solia walked out the room stating that he have a nice day and she needed to go to the dojo and train before the day was over. He just nodded while going back to the papers in front of him.

~.~

The scents of sweaty men were strong in the hall towards the dojo and in the area the was right outside the giant area where it was. Solia was used to the scent now though because of herself training with the race of males. Other women would laugh at her if she told them this but she thought that the smell of sweat was like a sweet aroma now.

The clink and clang of metal against metal was heard everywhere that was like a river of hard dancing music in her ears. This was what she always loved because it helped her get stress from her mind and things that she didn't want to ponder on form her mind. It was the only thing that she had before she came here to Inutaisho's castle.

Men were in the halls waiting for their turn in the room with the partner that they chose and bowed their head to her when she passed. Bowing her's and smiling, she went towards the end of the large hall where the royalty could train. The room that they could use was large but not much bigger than the ones that the soldiers and young boys used since they didn't need that much room.

Besides why would they need a lot of room if there were only a few males that would actually train in it? It was pretty useless if only a few people used it and they didn't even need that much room inside the place anyhow.

Solia was glad that the first lord of the castle and dojo had decided to make it as big as the others because it saved room inside the grounds behind the wall.

She walked into a room right next to the one that she went to, to gather her clothes and change. Sighing when she climbed up the few stairs, she went to her side of the place and began to change. Once done, she walked back out and to the dojo. Sliding the door, she stopped when she heard heavy breathing form someone. She looked around and blinked when she saw Sesshomaru standing in only his hakama.

Sweat ran down his whole body, leaving his hair to be plastered to his face in wet and sticky strands. And left the rest of his hair that was tied back in a braid stuck to his bare back. The light from the windows that shone in the windows reflected off his body making him look like he was just out of a spring. His eyes were closed in concentration and his hands were loosely gripping the long sword that he had in his hand. His stature was perfect in acting like he wasn't even tired. The only thing you could tell of how he was though was his heavy breathing and sweaty composure.

Solia blinked a few times as she took a breath and realizing that she was holding her breath without knowing it. She looked away from him to the ground. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you were in here. The soldiers didn't tell me that someone was in here so I thought that it was free for me."

"It doesn't matter. I know you wouldn't bother me if you were in here. I know you think its important and that's how I feel about mine. You can go ahead and do whatever you want."

Blinking, she looked back to him. "Really?"

"Hai. Plus I need to work with someone else for once and see if I still can do what I did when I was younger," he replied lowering his arms and turning to her. "Plus I haven't trained with you for a while now." He whispered softly so that only he could hear.

"But that would… you looked so tired. Are you sure that you can do some more?" She asked tilting her head at him.

Sesshomaru nodded and smiled slightly. "I've been here since lunch but I haven't exerted myself as much as I usually do." Most people would have been so shocked at the smile that he had just given but she was used it now. He had grown accustomed to her because she understood him more than anyone in the castle now- even his father Inutaisho. "Oh… by the way. Why was Eythna yelling again this afternoon?" He asked sheathing the sword and laying it against the wall.

Solia sighed at this and shook her head thinking back to the event. She groaned and gave her answer, "she was getting yelled at again by the bitch. I wish that she would stop it because if she did than Eythna wouldn't be disobeying her and throwing these tantrums."

"I see. Heh…silly." He replied laughing and walked over to her. "But how did you o it this time?"

"Do what?"

"Make her stop that racket and go back to her."

"Oh… I threatened that her 'father' would teach her instead or get a stricter teacher than the one now." She laughed and followed after her watching her as he did.

It was funny seeing how similar the two females were, he just wondered how much more she'll be when the girl was older. He sighed and continued to watch her as she walked over to the shelf of swords and took one in hand. He sometimes wondered how the girl would be if she was his father's instead of another males. It didn't matter though, no one knew that the girl was not his father's so he didn't care about the woman bearing another man's pup.

But ever since the woman came, he started to change and now he was more open then he used to be. It made him afraid that someone would find out since he was letting out his emotions around her now. There was always someone that would find something out, even though the person that wanted it secret tried hard to keep it secret. In his years of learning and watching others, he found out that the harder someone tried to keep something secret, the easier it was for someone to find out.

He learned from her that she didn't even try to keep something secret. She acted as if something was out of the ordinary and it worked. She wasn't worried about anyone finding things out and didn't have a care in the world about whether if they did.

"Sesshomaru!" Came her voice through the wall of his mind and turned to her with an emotionless façade. "What is it?" He asked.

"Where were you? I was calling you to ask if you were ready." She was right in front of him with her hands on each of his shoulder and the sword under her arm. She was ready to shake him out of his little revere and back into the real world.

Solia knew that he always did that and knew that he didn't usually do it in front of others so she never had told anyone about it. It would just embarrass him and she didn't want him to get mad at her because it had taken over 6 years for her to get to him so he would act like he knew her as a friend, not his father's wife. The six years was enough to prove that she had a major effect on people if she tried to change them and he was the most difficult to get to since he locked up everything he had open before his mother died.

Sesshomaru sighed walking back to the wall, taking sword and sheath in hand, and went to the other side of the room. "I'm ready when you are," he stated with anticipation clearly showing in his voice.

Looking at him as she went to her side, she slipped the sword in the belt around her waist and getting in her fighting stance. "Ready." She whispered with no expression on her face except for the smirk across her lips.

"Ready." He added and they both lunged at each other.

Solia swung her sword towards his feet and he easily dodged but she knew he would be able to. With a smirk crossing his lips, he landed on his feet just in time to turn around and block one of her thrusts of the sword.

"Nice try." He growled at her as they both fought for pushing the other person back.

Solia grinned and laughed pushing harder and actually pushing him back an inch. He blinked at her laughing back at her. "You think you can win? I've been fighting and training longer than you have and plus I'm older."

"Being older than someone doesn't mean that you will be better than the person. Didn't you know that?"

"Feh! Whatever!" He kicked her feet from under her and she fell with a loud thud and metal clang from the sword. Eyes widened and mouth open, she was staring at Sesshomaru whom was smirking down at her. "What were you saying little girl about being older doesn't matter?"

"It doesn't, " came her whisper and she clutched her sword tighter to attack but he stepped on her hand before she could move. "Silly woman, men are naturally better than women when it comes to fighting. You should know that."

"Hai.. but not all are. We can be stronger, though maybe not as good as you. But we are more flexible then you males so that makes us better then you." She said trying to claw at his foot, but he stepped on that hand too. She growled and whined. "Don't break my damn hands pup."

"Heh, don't worry. Father will kill me if I ever did that."

"Hai… he would…." She whispered softly and sighed looking from him to pretend like she was giving up.

He fell for it and took one hand off one wrist but left one on and watched her to make sure that she was actually telling the truth. At the release of one hand, she grabbed his ankle with the free hand and swung him full force towards the wall. She slammed her elbow in his gut. Grabbing his throat quickly before he could get up, she pulled him up and pointed the tip of the weapon to his white neck.

Sesshomaru blinked at her, later laughing at her. "Good job. But I think I'm becoming too soft for you. Letting myself fall for that sorrowful trick."

Solia laughed at the comment. "Maybe so. You have changed since we first met. Much," she paused, thinking. "Much more open to me now… and you even smile like it never happened and we've been friends for more than just since I've married your father."

"Yeah," sighing he glanced down.

Sesshomaru made a move that she didn't expect and the fight went on once again. But this time there was no talking, only the clash of swords against each other and the flow of heavy sweat covering the two's bodies. Heavy footsteps were heard as they after each other and danced in their dance of swords. The two never backed down. When they started to feel the pain of the limitation of their bodies, they forced themselves to go on even though they were suffering hard in the inside and their lungs burning for the desperately needed air that they couldn't get from moving so much. They ignored everything around them except for the opponent in front of them.

But the longer it went, the more curious the men outside the room got. They all wanted to see what all the banging was coming from which fighters from the royal dojo but they knew that if they stepped near the room they would be in dead trouble. No one was allowed to be near it except for the royalty themselves and guests from the other palaces and so on. Whispering of the battle that was never ending went through the castle, so more and more people kept talking about how strong the fighters must have been.

The soldiers that had seen the Lady Solia and Prince Sesshomaru had been adding that they were the only ones to enter that dojo the whole day so it must have been them that were fighting.

Finally, after it seemingly being forever of hearing the ongoing battle, it suddenly stopped.

"You remember that girl that I brought back from when I was in the mountain?" Sesshomaru asked in a whisper as he panted heavily as he held his sword.

"Hai," she answered arching a sweaty eyebrow at him. He continued," well, I've heard that she has married a popular lord where she went after those years of watching her here in the castle and nothing happened." He growled. "I can't believe that I believed that woman when she told me she was an assassin."

Solia nodded and let him go from the point of her sword. Knowing that he wouldn't fight any longer till he was done with what he would say. "You can't blame yourself. Everyone has to make mistakes."

"I know… but that woman didn't smell like she was lying when she said that to me. Now I wonder if I made the right choice in letting her go."

"She hasn't done anything yet, so you did. Don't kill yourself with thinking all this nonsense. You'll die from the stress of it. Just let it go till something happens to bring your attention back to it. Okay?"

Sesshomaru looked up at her and nodded, smiling lightly at her. "You're right." He walked past her to the sword that he dropped when she slammed his side. "Shall we continue?" He asked smirking as he turned his head to her.

Shaking her head at his question, she walked to him. "Let's do this some other time. It's about time that Eythna gets out. If she finds me here, she'll start questioning me once again about why she can't learn to fight like a man." She sighed heavily and shook just thinking about last time it happened.

"Hai… that makes perfectly good sense." He muttered lowering his sword. "But it was a good fight don't you think?"

"Hai," she answered smiling. "Very good. Very good indeed." She laughed walking past him. "Now let's go wash up."

"Hai," he answered back watching her with sadness in his eyes. Sighing, he followed into the changing room and walked back out and waited for her. He walked with her down to the bathes than separated once they had to go their own ways of the baths.

They never noticed the people that were watching and whispering about them. Once again they only paid attention to their own conversation. The whispers that were spreading across the castle were beginning to get more serious more since everyone wondered about what the true relationship was between the two. They knew that they had gotten closer over the years because of Sesshomaru being so open now to the woman.

And you know that if there are rumors in one place, then they have to travel to other parts of the land from the soldiers and servants that go out and go buy food. Neither of these two knew that someone was plotting something that would change their lives.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 Going After

"My lord!" Screamed a certain fearful little green toad. "My lord! Urgent!" He screamed as he scrambled into the doorway.

Takoku looked down at him from the desk he sat at and arched an eyebrow. His father was sleeping at the moment because he had asked him take his place today so that he could get some rest from the commotion that he kept having to deal with. "What is it? It has to be important to bother me this time of day. Give it to me." He growled at the toad and Marz quivered as he thought what he would do to him when he read the letter. He knew that Takoku never liked bad news when it dealt with him and the honor of his family. Twitching, he handed the letter to him. It had already been opened by Marz, because he checked all letters that were sent to make sure that they weren't rubbish or if something was put inside them that could kill someone. He had dealt with many of those kinds of letters over the past 700 years of his position in the castle so that made his use to the dealings.

The stoic prince grabbed the letter and sighed opening it as he pretended to act like it was nothing like it was sometimes. But on the inside he was dreading in being here instead of his father. He never liked dealing with major things such as this.

Reading the contents, his eyes widened at the information.

It read:

_There has been an assassination here in the capital of the Southern lands. It wasn't the Lady Solia's father that was killed but it was a powerful lord that was quite close to the lord. He was killed in his own forest when he was out hunting. No one knows whom it was that did it because all they saw was a shadow in the trees. There was no scent that they gotten either so they are confused. But my Lord, please hear this and don't do anything drastic and don't let the Lady find this out. We all know she would probably run back here and protect her father if she thought that something would happen to them._

_Anyway my lord, there is also some other news. Something about the girl that Lord Takoku let free. She is said to have been wandering the lands in the south and dealing with a known murderer. She doesn't know that I know this but I am just telling you this and you should tell Lord Takoku. _

_Just reporting in as usual and hope you consider these important pieces of info._

Takoku growled and crumpled the letter in his hand. He forced himself from using his poison and destroying it because this information was bad enough to piss him off.

Marz shook as he watched him, "My lord… what. What shall we do?" He stuttered swallowing.

"Show it to my father and burn it."

"Hai, my lord." He took it from him and rushed out afraid that he might loose his temper.

Takoku laid his head down sighing heavily. "Hopefully she won't find out about this." He muttered softly and shook his head. He didn't want her to get hurt or worse just because she was afraid that her father needed someone. He didn't even know why she did this because of her hatred towards him. He hoped that neither of her sisters would send her something that would tell her what happened. He cared too much for her to loose her or put her in danger.

Solia didn't know that he had such strong feelings for her and he was glad that being so open with her made her think that they were close friends. She didn't realize yet that she, herself, had changed him into the person that he once was before his mother died. But he made sure that only she saw it because he didn't want anyone to start thinking of him loving her. Even though he did and he admitted it only to himself, but if they started to think that then he would be in trouble with his father and he might even loose her if she found out.

If it weren't for his father being her husband, he would have married her. He guessed that would happen because she was the eldest of her sisters and the daughter of the Southern lord.

If it wasn't for the war and his father ordering him to stay at the castle to watch over everyone and keep order, than he probably would have met her somehow and she would be his instead of his father's. He thought about what he should have done during that war and should have disobeyed him. But then the castle would have been captured from those many times that they were attacked.

He shook his head and stood after finishing the last paper he was on. Walking out, he went towards the gardens to ponder on what to do. He would talk to his father about this.

~.~

"Takashi." Whispered a tired voice that interrupted his sleep. He groaned and opened his purple eyes looking into the face of his wife.

"What is it?" He asked her as she got on an elbow.

"Marz says there's something important that you need to read."

"Oh," he shook his head to help himself get out of his sleepy stage and stood. He went to Marz outside the room and asked what it was. Marz just handed it to him. He opened it and began to read. His eyes widened and closed the door behind him as he heard Solia get up to see what it was that he was reading.

Solia blinked at this and sighed. _'It must be bad if he won't let me see.'_ She laid down again and fell back to sleep in a few minutes.

Takashi listened for her movements, sighing when he didn't hear anymore but her evened out breaths. He turned back to Jaken. "Did Takoku see this?"

"Hai, my lord?"

"Good." He thought for a moment and told him," don't let Solia know this and same for Eythna."

"Yes sire." He took it back and bowed knowing that he was done with it. He left his lord standing there as he bid to do what Takoku wanted him to do with it.

Takashi sighed heavily as he leaned against the door. "What am I suppose to do? Should I put more soldiers around that castle? But I don't want to have Solia ask questions about this. But I need to protect everyone. We don't know what that person will do next. I'll speak with Takoku."

He nodded and walked towards where he thought he would be. He was correct since he knew Takoku would only go to the garden if he needed to think.

He called out his name and Takoku answered. Walking over to him, he looked at him. "What do you take of this?"

"I don't know. It's troubling though. Should we tell Solia?"

"No," he responded sighing. "She would flip out if she knew."

"Hai," Takoku agreed sighing with him. "Should Marz make sure that her letters are read too before given to her?" He asked.

"I think so, but…" he stopped. "Never mind about the last part. Let's just have him look at them before they are given to her." Takoku and Takashi agreed on this and the prince stood looking at him. "I'll see you later father." He whispered bowing and walked away.

"See you later son." He smiled watching and sat down himself.

~.~

Solia hadn't gotten her usual amount of letters from her siblings telling her what was going on in the castle and how they were doing. She was beginning to wonder now what was happening to them on the way to the castle or if something bad was happening to them

Every once in a while she would ask herself if she should go to Takashi or Takoku and tell them that this has been happening that was unusual. But the asking herself this was getting more and more common now whenever she was by her self. Today was one of those days when she would sit in the garden and read the letters that had arrived. They would always come together and she had six others siblings but the letters that lay in her lap was few: half of what she usually had.

She was reading a letter now from her sister that was married and she was so excited in the letter that she could barely read the letters that was there in from of her. They were so scrunched up that she had to squint and the only words that she had gotten out of it so far was that her sister was pregnant and something bad was happening in her homeland. Which made her wonder why none of her other brothers and sisters had said nothing about it either. She would have to speak with Takashi about this when she was done reading them all.

She folded the letter back and placed it in the small pile of others that she had read. She began to read the next one and smiled in happiness when she read her closest sister was coming to visit her. In a couple days, she would have tell Takashi so a room could be prepared. She read the rest of it and went on to the other letter.

~.~

A fancy carriage pulled through the gates of the massive castle with a few dozen guards behind and ahead. Solia was at the top of the stairs with one of the most joyful expressions on her face but she was also questioning why her sister had so many soldiers with her. Her sisters never wanted many people with them except the guards that were always with them. She shook her head and ran down the steps to the carriage that was stopped now.

The door opened and a small girl leapt out into Solia's arms. She held the small girl tightly to her as she wept from happiness. She had finally seen one of her sisters that have never come to see her and Solia was too busy to go see them.

"I've missed you so much!" The child exclaimed and she nodded, spinning around.

"I've missed you too," she whispered and let her down. She wiped her face clean and looked down at her. She was only a few years younger but she was as tall as a small child. Her face wasn't of a child though and her green eyes showed the years of experience. Her black hair with its few brown highlights from her mother was tidy as a grown woman's would be. That was always one visual appearance that everyone knew of that she wasn't a child. She was always made fun of her shortness by their other siblings, but Solia kept her safe from them and calmed her down whenever she would get upset from the teasing.

"Sister, can I see your girl? You know I've been dying to see her. The way you described her sounded sooo adorable!" She hugged herself smiling. "I gotta hold her in my arms."

"Hehe… don't worry sister you get to see her but at the moment she is training. She convinced me, Takoku, and her 'father' that she needed to train. She said something about wanting to be as strong as her uncle." Shrugging and laughing at her daughter, she looked at her sister whom was sighing. "You've told me that she is almost exactly like her father. I have to see!" She blinked and smirked. "Let's go see her now! I don't care if she's training!"

The younger woman took her hand and started to run up the stairs while yelling to the men behind them to go ahead and find their quarters.

Solia told her where the dojo was while running behind her sibling and laughing. Once they were there Solia forced her sister to stop by falling. She didn't get hurt so she sat up and told her that they had to be quiet now or else her training would be messed up. When she stood and helped her sister, she went to the door, pressing her ear to it. It was quiet except for the low talking of her daughter's teacher. She smiled. "Almost done they are." She whispered to her. "Just wait a few minutes than we can go in."

The whine from her was her answer and she sighed standing and fixing the kimono that she had on. Waiting a few minutes, the noise of the door came and a small girl came out. Her face was covered in sweat from today's activities. She blinked and screamed when she felt arms around her. "Mommy!" She squealed as she clutched at the culprit's arms. "Mommy help!"

"Eythna, it's okay." Came the soothing voice of her mother. "This is your aunt, Misiro, my sister."

Eythna blinked and let go sighing. "Can you tell her to let go? I'm too tired for this."

"Let you go?" The arms around her loosened than let go. "Why would I let you go?"

"Sorry, but you just did." Eythna laughed and smiled. "Beg my pardon but I need to go bathe," she bowed her head a little and glared at her mother before saying that she would make her. Solia just laughed at her.

"She's been acting more of a young lady since she has been training. Her master must be disciplining her well."

"I see…but she is an adorable girl." She leaned towards her after looking at the girl that was walking away. "Too bad that her father died. He was a sweetheart from what you've told me. He sounds so hot too." Misiro hugged her sister gently smiling. She let go seeing that Solia was shaking a little and glanced at her. "I'm sorry that I had to remind you of him." She soothed and held her sister once more.

"It's okay. I'm glad you said something about him. I don't want to forget about him and I've just realized that I haven't been thinking of him that often."

"I don't like seeing you so sad though sister. If it hurts to remind you of him then I won't do it anymore."

"No… say what you please. It doesn't matter what I'll do. Just don't say anything about him around her."

"I won't. You know I don't want to cause trouble for you and her. But let's speak of this later in your room. Let's find something enjoyable to do."

"Hai… but instead of waiting for my room to speak, let's just go to the garden to talk. It would be much more fun to talk there with everything around us instead of my dull room."

"That would be better." Misiro smiled and took her arm in a sisterly manner. Solia guided her towards the gardens smiling. It was good to have one of her closest siblings here.

~.~

All the chattering that was haring was starting to get really irritating. He was already frustrated from the stupid questions that his father's counselors were asking each other about the lands politics and even the current events in the whole island.

He looked out the window and smiled seeing Solia so happy. She looked so much better than what she was whenever she had no one to talk to. Finally had someone to talk to instead of thinking about life and its problems all by herself. He didn't mind her voice that was coming to his ears from below the floor he was on. It was just that listening to the idiots in front of him and then hearing her voice made him happy that she chose that spot to talk to her sister in. It was high from almost everything that she said because she was so happy.

But as he listened to the men in front of him talking about the assassination that just happened a week back, he reminded himself that he needed to speak with the sister. Needing to tell her not to tell Solia what happened back in her country was something that he defiantly wanted to tell her. Loosing her because of her softness of family was what he definitely didn't want to happen. He just wondered now if she would be suspicious about him telling her that. Since that something that he usually didn't do for anyone or at least he didn't show that he cared about anyone.

"My lord, do you think that we should send a spy to look for who did it?" Came a question that was pacifically questioned to him. Getting knocked of his thought, he looked at the man that asked it and than to the others. "Ask my father, I say we should but he might say we shouldn't. But knowing him, he probably will say we should."

"Hai." They all answered, almost in unison.

Takoku turned around in the cushion towards the window and stared down at the girls. Below he could hear a poem that Solia was saying to her sister.

I sounded beautiful and as she men behind him whispered about their lord, he just paid attention to the gentle voice of the one he loved.

It was:

_My heart of heaven rages on_

_Fire coursing through my arms_

_Wings of mercy saves thy soul_

_Love of thy takes control_

_As I see you lying dead_

_My heart starts to fill with dread_

_Memories going through my head_

_Tears pour out my pain filled eyes_

_Taking my surprise_

_Letting me die_

_With thy_

It ended with her sniffling and Misiro patting her shoulder saying that it was beautiful. Sighing in his mind at her and wishing that he could just take all the pain that she held was what he wanted now but he knew he couldn't go down to her and say that it was okay.

If he would do that then everyone would know that he loved her just from that action and that would cause trouble between her father and his family. It would cause her disgrace because he loved his father's wife, though she was his age and that would make sense. But all the things he thought about what it would bring make the people of the island question him and her if something was going on between them. He didn't want to bring her into that. He knew that if he told everyone that nothing was happening then that would just make it worse and that would cause her trouble. Hurting her was the last thing on his mind when he thought about her and he wasn't about to start that pain for the poor woman now.

"Is that all there is about speaking to me about?" He asked them all, not even bothering to turn around.

"Hai, Lord Sesshomaru. But we will ask your father about that last question. Not to be rude my lord but you need to start making your own decisions instead of asking your father about them." A growl came from the prince's lips and they backed up from him. They all realized that they shouldn't say something like that again.

"Don't tell me what to do. I know what I say and he is still the lord here so I can't make every decision," he growled out at them. "Now go or else I'll tear all your heads off for that remark." Came the threat that made them all tremble and run out knowing that any threat that came form him was real.

Sesshomaru sighed, leaning against the sill of the window and letting the day take its effects on him. If Solia saw him from below, she would know that he had a tough time and would understand why he was letting his mask down so soon.

Coincidentally, she did see and sighed. She wished that he would just give up about hiding everything and be his self that he so freely let out for her.

She turned back to Misiro smiling. "Now look up there sister. That's the prince that let's himself out for me. He looks so much cuter when he doesn't have that mask on." Grinning at that she said, she watched Misiro look to him and eyes widen.

"Oh my god! He does!" She exclaimed excitedly in a whisper. "You still don't know why he does that?" Came her curious question.

"No… a few years back he just all of a sudden came out so I thought that he was pretending. After a few more times of him doing it again, I figured he must trust me or something now."

"Really?" Misiro asked looking back to him from her sister's explanation. Takoku must have seen her look at him because the tired face that he once held was gone now and he was standing to go.

Solia giggled. "He's a silly boy don't you think?"

"Hai hai. But he would be such a good father. I can tell that he would actually pay attention to the pups that he has instead of leaving them with their mother the whole day. Whomever gets that hunk will be lucky." They both nodded giggling some more.

God women were annoying sometimes, but he sure was glad that Solia didn't even suspect that he only came out to her was because he liked her a lot. Though he loved her now. The look that he got from Misiro, though, suggested that she had a suspicion maybe knowing why he had done so. He didn't like the look and now started to worry if she would actually figure out while she was here as the guest.

He decided to ask her later after dinner when Solia was putting Eythna to bed.

~.~

Dinner was good since he wasn't there because he was watching some soldiers spar. He did his job of observing them and telling what went wrong than went to the woman's room.

Knocking gently, after making sure that Solia wasn't coming out of Eythna's room, he waited for her to come to the door. When she did, she had a confused look of why the hell he was here.

"What is it my lord?" She asked respectfully tilting her head at him and mentally grinning at seeing his wonderful complexion that was much closer than before.

"I would like to speak with you," he stated.

Arching a dark eyebrow at him, she laughed. "Here or somewhere else?"

"Somewhere else if you please."

"If you say so my lord." She bowed her head. "Let me get something warm real quick." He nodded and waited for her. When she came back out, he told her to follow. She nodded and did as told as he guided her to the edge of the lush garden by the edge of the woods.

Stopping and turning to her, he sighed letting his mask go to reveal the frustration underneath. "I know you've seen it so don't look so shocked woman." Takoku barked at her because she did have the shocked face on. "I'm telling you now that you can't tell Solia what happened in your land. Don't say anything until I'm done." He barked once more because she opened her mouth to say something. "I know her all too well that if she finds out then she would go there and go look for that damned assassin. Don't even go near the subject either."

"Hai, my lord. But I would like to know why you are so protective of her. I've heard some rumors from some of the servants here that you have changed towards my sister. Is this true and how deep does your feelings for her go? I know for a fact that you like her for more than a friend because of the way you just let that mask of yours off seems very peculiar. Especially since you put it back on when-" She was cut off by Takoku when he held his hand in front of her to be quite.

"Quite woman." He whispered so only she could hear.

Misiro blinked and looked around. She squinted when she saw something move in the shadows and stood beside Takoku so that the perpetrator wouldn't see her with him. "Who is that?" She asked into his ear, though she had to stand on her toes to do so.

"It's a soldier. Stay there," he commanded to her and she tensed thinking that someone would catch them and think the wrong thing. She hoped desperately that it wouldn't happen that way.

Takoku watched the guard walk around the perimeter of the garden but every inch that the man took towards him, he wondered if he would notice him and come over, hence discovering Misiro with him. It didn't happen though. But for a moment of him stopping and staring right at him, he thought that all was gone. The guard walked away and still watching him leave, left out a heavy sigh of relief. Turning to the shaking girl beside him, he took a step away from her. "He's gone," whispered the prince as he watched her.

The woman was still shaking and he put a hand of her shoulder to try to calm her. It did after her jumping from his touch. "He's gone," he whispered once more seeing her sigh after what he said.

"I thought we would be caught," she said blushing under her bangs as she bowed her head down. Blinking at why the hell she was do this girlish innocence, she looked to him after making the red beet of her face disappear. "But so anyway. Before that happened. I still want to know how you fell about my sister."

Growling at her for continuing to the subject that he wanted to avoid, he answered. "I care for her as a friend, nothing more." He state firmly, squaring his shoulders at her.

Giggling, she waved her hand at him. "So you say Lord Takoku. Please tell the truth, I can smell it on you that you are lying. I won't tell her nor anyone else. I promise my lord… on my family's name." She finished looking at him to the gentle face that showed a slight blush. If only this man would be her's, but her sister had stolen his heart. Why would anyone not want her sister? She was such a caring person that befriended anyone, even if they her worse enemy. She was sweet, beautiful, and tall while she, herself, was a short girlish woman that a man thought was too young to bear pups or marry.

"It's not a laughing matter girl. Not to me it is. I take this seriously, especially since the woman I…I love is the wife to my own father," he stuttered at a word he never thought he would say to anyone besides his mother, never the less to a stranger he never met. "I may love your sister but I cannot show my affections to her. It would be a serious offence to my father if I would do so and hence cause troubles for both of us. For your family too maybe. I don't want to get involved with that. I don't want her to be hurt with anything that deals with me. I want to have her as my own but the woman isn't mine, I can't lay one finger on her unless I want to be banished from my own homeland."

He let his defenses of his mask down even more as pain came to his perfect smooth face. The shock of the girl in front of him didn't even bother him because he didn't care at the moment. He just cared for telling her what the hell he wanted her to do. He didn't even care if he cried in front of her. "You don't know how much I want to touch her, just to hold her like I was her mate or to-be mate. I don't care if I die in any process of protecting her, as long as she lives is what I want. If she ever wants me is something that I will probably never be able to hold. If my father ever dies than that is the only time that I can declare my love to her."

Takoku growled loud to himself. "I can't believe that I'm telling you this." He closed his eyes and sighed but when he felt a warm, gentle hand of his cheek, his eyes snapped open in surprise.

"She deserves to have you. You are strong if you are able to hide these from her and she's the one that can always tell what someone is thinking. You are as lovely as she is and she deserves to have a man that is so handsome after all she's been through." She took her hand away smiling at him. "Don't worry about it my lord, I care for my sister. She may be only my half but she is the best out of us all, we all respect her for all she's gone through with our father and protecting our home. She sacrificed her own happiness to someone she would probably never be happy with and her life in the hands of people she didn't know. Of coarse she heard the tales of your father and lord being as kind as she is. But I think you should know how people deceive others while in public and she was afraid that your father was like that. No offense though I should say!" She rushed as soon as she heard what she said.

"Of course not my lady. I understand that well and I deeply appreciate what you are doing. You don't know how much better I feel about her not having all those letters that she gets from her family at your estate."

"So that's why she hasn't said anything about it or come to us." She smirked at him. "I guess I can tell my siblings that when I return, since that is the reason that I'm here. Though it is good that I spoke with you about it. I would rather have her here than there, it's very hectic in my homeland after it all. He man was closest to my father and had one of the highest security in the city besides my father's." She scratched her chin," but it wouldn't surprise me that he was assassinated. He was infamous for what he did for a living and I've heard that his daughter's husband did want to have his money and position after he passed away. You know that my other sister is married to a lord that Is in high class too but would like to be higher, like in Tamai's area whom was just killed."

"I haven't heard that." Takoku said blinking. "I've never heard that rumor but it does make sense now." He became serious again and the mask went back on because he was thinking in his lordly manner.

"You don't live in my lands though that's why. It's kind of like the one I've heard here about you. A lot of people under you presume that you love Solia. They are correct though now that I know. But I won't tell."

"Others?" He asked nervously.

"Hai… I bet your whole estate and farther think so from what they heard. You better be careful."

"I see. I better watch what I do now while around her and public." He growled once more at his stupidity that he did. "I won't let them think about it further."

"Good jo-" she yawned and laughed. "I better get to sleep. It's getting late, and same for you too."

"Hai, we should. Good night my lady." Takoku bowed is head and walked away all the while feeling the eyes of Misiro's eyes on him. He smiled a little at finally letting someone besides himself know that he loved her and felt better at letting someone know his deep secret and keep it to themselves.

Misiro smirked as she walked behind him towards the castle than to her room. Happiness filled her as she knew now that someone besides that man her sister was married to was someone else that wanted her safety and happiness. She took her small cover that kept her warm this night off and laid on her futon. Sleep came easily to her tonight and she thought about her sister and Takoku being together maybe later on in life.

Takoku fell asleep easily too knowing that he didn't have to worry about Solia going into danger.

~.~

The two weeks that Misiro was there was enjoyable. Solia and herself played in the small field with the beautiful girl that ran around. She may have trained like a young male pup did but she couldn't resist the beauty of the flowers that bloomed now that it was finally spring. Everything was green and filled her bright, brilliant colors that matched the moods of the three and the people of the capital in this area of the island. Misiro know though, that in their state that everything probably worse now that Tamai's son-in-law had taken over and everything probably changed because of him taking the position.

Every time that Misiro saw Takoku and Solia together, she couldn't help but smile at them. Her happiness for them was immense and if anyone were to destroy it than she would gladly kill who did it. She hated to leave them tomorrow but she knew she had to go. She did have to return and tell her family that Solia didn't know what was going on there and she didn't trust sending a letter to them at the moment.

The day went by fast and the next one-third went by fast too. Now she was saying goodbye to her sister and told her to say goodbye to her little friend. She smiled down at the little girl that was calling her sister too since they became close a few days ago.

"I'll miss you so much sissy!" Exclaimed the young pup as she held tight to the called sister.

"I'll miss you too. Hope you can visit after you're done with part of your training with your sensai."

"I will. But that's if mom will let me." She whined looking to her mother.

"You will after maybe half a year longer. You need to improve your training though before you go out where you can get killed."

"Hai mother. I understand." Eythna let go sighing and bowed low to her elder. "Please be careful."

Smiling at her sweet sister now, she hugged her walking to the carriage after sniffling her sadness of leaving away. "I'll see you later." Climbing into the carriage, it left the two females alone on the stairs.

Solia held her daughter's hand and walked back up the stairs. Let's go play a while than you can go train if you want.

"Okay," whispered a sad pup, holding onto her mother's hand tightly with her head low.

After playing a while Eythna became happy again and returned to her training with her master. Solia went to Takashi to ask him how she was doing in her training.

She knocked on the door and waited for him to answer. Usually, she just pranced right in but she knew that in this time of year he was always having his meetings with the other lords in his part of Japan. She wanted him to look like an actual lord of his stature around other lords, though they were lower than his self. She knew that if others saw their own lord having his wife acting so casual around him without showing any respect around them than they would think that he was too soft.

Some demons would take advantage of this and group together to take the lord over and kill him or throw him out of his place. Therefore, they would fight each other so they could have his place and that would bring to whole realm into chaos.

After getting the answer she was waiting for after a long minute, she stepped into the room. Looking around for anyone, she didn't bow to him and walked over to her husband behind his desk. "Has the old man said anything about Eythna's training since last time?" She asked when he looked to her from his work.

"Nothing really…Just the usual of her being obedient to him," he left out a heavy sigh and shook his blue head at her. "She does better with him than with us. I wish that she would be that good with you and I."

Solia placed a kiss on his cheek. "She probably admires him or else she knows that if she misbehaves than she'll be taken out of there."

"Heh, I would be acting like she is now than!" Takashi exclaimed and brought her closer. She smiled nodding and let him curl his arms and tail around her waist, burying his face into the stomach. "This year sucks. Too much has been going on. All the lords are coming to me questioning about what I'm gonna do about some things." He whined and nuzzled gently at her. He was glad that she was here, feeling her next to him was already helping dissolve all the stress that was overwhelming him.

Smoothing his hair and running her long, gentle fingers through his hair, she smiled down to him as she held his body and messaging his firm shoulders. A soft purr-like sound was coming from her and she giggled, she loved it when he did this. It was funny and soothing at the same time since she could feel the vibrations from him. "What are they asking?"

"I can't say. It's between us only dear. Sorry." He whispered to her and tightened his hold on her. She said it was okay and it was none of her business to know anyway. If she knew that someone close to her father was assassinated than she would run there. He didn't want her to go and he knew that he couldn't force her to stay. But maybe if she did find out, he would just tell her to stay for Eythna. He knew the girl loved her mother very much and wanted to be with her all the time. She tried to hide it though. _'Just like Takoku.'_

As the months went by, she wanted to be more and more around her and wanted to do the things that she did. But the training that he went through kept her from doing that. But if you watched her closely, you would notice that she was more glued to her now because she was doing the one thing that her mother was so into.

He let another sigh out and whined into her stomach. "Solia… I want my own child. I don't care if it's a girl or boy. I just want one with you."

Solia stopped her motion and stared at him. "Why do you want one now?" She asked and forced his face to turn to look at her.

"I just want another child. Don't be mad but…" He let his arms uncoil from her waist but let them still be on her hips. "Takoku is my only child and I want another boy. I wouldn't mind another girl but you know how others might think if I have only one boy that's almost grown or two girls."

"Takashi, I wouldn't mind having another child. I would love to be a mother again. I miss my little girl and she's growing so quickly that I can't imagine what she might be like the next day. I want to have another pup to hold again and to care for. It makes me so happy and it would make me happier if one was yours. I bet that if it was a boy he would be like Takoku. He's so kind compared to other males I've seen." She held him to her flat belly and pet him like a dog. She knew he didn't care since he was a inu-youkai anyway. "I want our house to stay here too. It would be terrible if it would go after Takoku's reign."

"Hai." Takashi whispered, wrapping his arms around her again. "Kami, I love you Solia." Came another small whisper as he nuzzled her some more and his head leaning towards her hands to get a better feel of her. Solia didn't hear his declaration of love for her, though, she just comforted him as if nothing was said. She didn't need to know what he said. She knew that he cared for her deeply just by how he treated her. So was so much happier than she was at her father's. Being here was the desired thing she wanted and she wanted to make him happy. Even if it meant that she couldn't do the things that she did when she wasn't pregnant with a pup.

All the while neither of them knew that someone was right outside the study. He closed his eyes and turned slowly. He would never have her except if his father died. He wanted her so bad but he didn't want to murder his own father, especially one so kind as him. Sometimes he wondered what she would think, say, or do if he told her that he cared for her as much as his father. He wondered if she would be ashamed that he would love his stepmother or if she would be glad that she had so many people that cared for her safety.

The more the thoughts came to his head and the future that he imagined with her, the more he thought about speaking and confessing his love. He wished so much that he could have met her before the war and lived with her. The woman was everything that he wanted: kindness, caring for others, strength that other women didn't have in these days, and her beauty. But he especially loved the way she acted, her personality was the one thing that he loved the most. He didn't care if she ever loved or been a mate to another male and even have his child. He just wanted to be with her forever and make sure that she would never be taken from his household and arms.

The thing that he wanted for her was happiness and that was all he cared about. He knew that if she didn't love him back after he told her would break his heart and change him forever but he didn't care. Solia deserved to be with the one that she wanted for all she did for him and others. She deserved to be happy and he didn't care about what he thought.

Sighing heavily, he turned the corner and almost as he did, someone bumped into him. He looked down to see his servant. "Why are you running Marz?" Came the steady voice of the cruel prince. He put his mask back on as soon as he felt him bump into him.

Marz quivered in fear. "I'm sorry Lord Takoku! I'm in a hurry! I need to go! Its important news!" He bowed still quivering with fear and immediately took off past him around the corner towards his father's study.

Takoku froze as soon as he realized something. The news was probably from Solia's homeland. He growled taking off after him, but it was too late in stopping the imp. He was already opening the door and screaming out the stuff.

"My Lord! Lord Darighon was almost killed yesterday!"

Takoku stopped behind him growling in his mind. If only he would have thought quicker.

Solia jumped, letting go of Takashi and spinning around to face Marz eyes wide. Her mouth was wide and she muttered her father's name.

Takashi looked at her and closed his eyes. Turning to face Marz, he glared at the toad. "Where was it? Do you know?"

The imp was white when he saw his Lady and bowed deeply. He began to shake more when he thought about the consequences of spitting the information out loud and especially after being told not to let Solia find out about any of this. "It was when he was walking to another part of the castle. He was ambushed so his guards couldn't do anything and almost all were killed."

The lord turned to Solia when he started to hear her sped up heart and rapid breathing. He immediately stood and took her shoulders. Rubbing her back he sighed heavily. "I didn't want you to hear any of this."

"Why didn't you tell me? Do you think…" She closed her eyes and kneeled down, Takashi still holding her. She continued once she caught some of her breath," that I don't care about my father because of what he did?"

"I know you did. That's why I didn't tell. I didn't want you to run off to him to try to protect him. You would be killed in the process probably. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"But you kept it from me. Is this what you have been keeping from me? Is this all that has been asking in your counsels when I'm not here? Is this what is asked of you from other lordlings?" She could feel his grip tighten and the whine from his own lips.

"Hai," came the faint answer and laid his head on her shoulder. "Please don't go Solia. I know you care for your father, even after all he did, but I don't want you to leave. You would be risking yourself by doing that. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"But my father. I know I'm the strongest of everyone in my land. Why can't I go? I know I can protect him better than those idiots guards." Her face turned to him and a few tears escaped her eyes.

"You are strong dear but… but your confidence may go down when you get there. What if you are killed? What will Eythna think when she finds that her mother is dead? You know how much she loves you."

"I won't die Takashi. I'll stay alive for my daughter… I won't die if she is still in this realm. Please…" Solia touched his arm looking at him in the eyes. "Please let me go." She begged softly to him.

Takoku grabbed Marz by the arm and whispered to him to leave. Marz, of coarse, did as told wanting to get away from the men, afraid what they might do to him later on in the day after this was sorted through. Watching the imp sprint around the corner, he walked into the room. He watched her stare at his father and just wanted to run to her telling her to stay and don't cry. When he heard her beg for him to let her go there, he looked down grinding his teeth as he let himself think about what to do. At the moment, he was going to say that he would go with her but his other more protective side was screaming and fighting against the other thought that she needed to stay.

"Please." She begged once more and now he was forming fists form keeping himself from growling out loud.

The next time her begging word came, he lost total control. "Solia…" He whispered and both turned to him. "You shouldn't go… but you should. You should protect your father, but not leave Eythna behind. Don't let her think that you left her for good and make her ponder if you are alive or not. But you should help him, help your father. You are the strongest in the land and you would be able to keep him safe."

He stared at her grinding his teeth more when she just stared at him with a blank face. Turning around, he caught some of his thoughts and now that he had control he spoke again," if you want to go than I will go with you. I will make sure that you will be safe."

Solia smiled at his words and held her chest. "Takoku… you would…. you would do that for me?" He shivered at her voice and nodded. "You are so kind." Tears were running down her cheeks as she covered her face when she knew that she couldn't stop them. "Please…can I go?" She begged for the last time.

Takashi stared at his son with wide eyes. He had never seen him like this before and now it made sense that the rumors about him were true. He did love her more than he acted. He never cared about anyone else and where they wanted to go in bad times. He turned to her question and ran his hand through her hair. "If… if you so desire. If he goes with you than I don't care where you go. As long as you come back to me," he whispered to her and took her hands from her face to wipe her face of the tears of happiness.

Leaving her, after he knew that she would be fine, he went over to his son. "Thank you son." He said. "Thank you for doing this." He smiled at him and gave a pat on his shoulder. All Takoku did was nod and walk out. He went straight towards the gardens to think if he did the right thing and Takashi wondered what was going through his head.

Glancing back to Solia, he sighed. He now knew that the rumors were true and now he would have to watch him. He knew that Takoku loved her now and would have to make sure that he didn't do anything stupid like confess it to her. Definitely not in public, but he would talk to him about that later when he and Solia came back from her lands. He knew for sure that she would want to leave tomorrow. But he didn't know how Eythna would take the separation from her mother and hoped that she would have the pain for a day and be herself every other day. He didn't want to hurt the child even she wasn't his. He knew that Solia loved her deeply since she is the daughter of the man that she loved and now was dead.

Takashi walked over to her, taking her shoulders. "Let's get you to our room so you can rest. I'm guessing you want to leave tomorrow. Right dear?" He asked smoothly but had a hint of sadness in her leaving if you knew him well.

Solia nodded and with the help of him, she stood and began to walk out. He kept glancing at her along the way and smiled to himself when he saw that she was becoming more of herself when she began to talk to him. She sighed and asked him something. He was totally shocked by her comment and blinked arching a silvered brow. "Are you sure?" He asked.

"Hai…" She whispered blushing when she looked at him from the corner of her eye. "I think its about time that I bear you another heir."

"…oh." Was all he spoke as he looked away from her. He felt a smooth hand on his arm and turned to her. Her eyes shined brilliantly of gentleness and a hint of lust. Her fingers ran down his chin as she touched him and he all of a sudden felt captivated by her. Just by the touch from her, he knew that she really didn't mind doing this. He took her hand in his and kissed it. "If you so wish my dear." He smiled down at her.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

They came to their room and he opened it letting her in first. He looked around before going inside and closing it sighing. This would be some night.

As soon as the clack of wood on wood was heard he felt her arms wrap around his body. He closed his eyes feeling her head lay on his back and sighed.

"To tell you the truth, I have been thinking about this moment for a while now. When ever we slept I dreamt of this and I dreamt of how you would feel." She whispered and nuzzled him letting him slip more into the demon side of his self. To let it take control since she wanted this and love the night that would come.

"Don't worry dear. I think you'll enjoy till we are done." He replied turning around in her arms and wrapping his own arms around her. He uncurled his tail and let it slip to the cold floor. A shiver ran through him as she raked her fingers down his back and to the base of his tail. His breathing heightened and a low purr-like sound came from his throat as his muscles relaxed to her touch. He was now under complete control of her and wondered what her demon side was like now and what it might do to him.

Solia smirked and let one hand scratch the base of his tail and the other going back to the front of his body to tug at his clothing. She looked down at what she did as she let that hand go inside his clothes and now she could feel the curves of his chest and ab muscles. She grinned as she felt nothing but his silky skin and growled in contentment as she roamed around his body as he leaned against her.

Letting a laugh out, when she stopped all she did, she looked at him and took a step back to let him jump from his revere and stare at her with shock and glee on his face. "Why…why did you stop?" He asked, his breath heavy and hot against her forehead.

She tugged at the edges of his hoari to show him why she did. Looking up to him once more, she whined. "I can't do anything while your leaning against me. Unless you want me to fall and hurt myself." She whispered with a grin and stood on her toes to give him a passionate kiss.

Takashi stood straight and wrapped his arms around her waist, going deeper into the kiss. Both their lips hot and moist from their thoughts of what will happen soon.

His hand wandered past the flap of her kimono to one of her breasts. He was shocked for find a full breast and his blood boiled at feeling her soft flesh. Solia let a soft moan into his mouth, pressing her body into his and now he felt himself go harder from the close contact. He let her lips go to stare at her lustful eyes and he licked his lips grabbing her shoulders and latched himself to her neck.

Her eyes widened at his sudden action but soon was leaning her head to the side to give him more room, her eyes closed and his 'purrs' of happiness coming off him so loudly that she was wanting to 'purr' herself. Her hands went to his waist as she pulled him with her towards the futon. She was not whining for to go farther than now as she let him go and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck to pull herself to him. Now she could feel his hardness on her stomach and she groaned at this.

It took Takashi a few seconds to realize that she wanted him to go farther and when he finally figured it out, his hands were quickly stripping her down to her bare nakedness. Though he did have a tough time with her obi since it wrapped around her waist a few times, but when it was done he let her throat go to look at her body. Her eyes stared into his as he examined her and the forming grin on his face. _Beautiful… she is beautiful._ He thought as he compared her complexion with the midnight color of her hair. Her skin was so fairly white to her black hair that it looked like she was merely a ghost.

His eyes wandered over her smooth and perfectly round breasts to her perfect hourglass curves that held her flat stomach and finally to the soft curls of her sex. His breath heightened as he could smell the arousal coming of her in heavy waves. The delicate scent of her flower and wind scented air made him want her now. But he wanted to have her slowly, to show her that he cared for her. He didn't want to take her now like a man would take one of the women in the brothels. He growled at her as he looked back into her eyes once more to see that need in them.

"You pleased my lord?" She asked softly, her breath quick and she pulled on his loose sash.

"Very pleased," he whispered as he held her body to his. Finally, after years of keeping his demon inside, he let the other half of his self go to do what it pleased with her. He pushed her gently to the futon, making her lay on her back but she was still undressing his body to reveal his firm chest and muscular body. His muscles twitching at her little touches as she threw aside the top.

Now she worked on getting his pants off and gasped once she saw what was hidden underneath. "Taka-" she began in a surprised voice but was stopped when he claimed her lips once more. Her lids instantly closed and her hands went to his back to run up and down. His hands brushed gently against her cheek than further down to her neck and finally to one of her firm breasts.

Solia arched her back to beg more of his touch and he let his other hand wander down her side to earn a shiver from her as her breath quickened at his touch. When he let her lips go, he went to her neck once more to nip there. The hand that was moving down her side was now at her most precious part. He was kind of pleased that she wouldn't feel as much pain as when she was first taken. He hoped that she would be pleased with him, but it didn't matter. As long as she would get with child again and his other demon would be pleased with her. But he did also care that she was happy afterward.

He looked to her face that was flushed and hearing her low pants. His youkai knew that she wouldn't mind this since she had already been claimed before and moved one of his fingers inside her, earning another gasp from her. Her grip on his back tightened and she clawed at him to continue. The muscles of her sex tightened around him and he groaned grinding his teeth together. Looking at her once more, he inserted another finger to now move them slowly in and out.

Her soft whimpers of pleasure roared in his ears and all his hearing disappeared from his mind as he ravaged her body with his mouth and fingers.

~.~

The night went on and across the castle grounds you could hear her screams of pleasure and ecstasy. Every once in a while you could hear the howling of her mate after each time he claimed her. Everyone knew what was going on and the young princess whined in displeasure of hearing it all. She couldn't sleep at all hearing all this and she finally decided to go to her brother's room. She knocked on his door and whined more as she covered her ears from the noise that she couldn't get away from.

The door opened and she latched onto his leg. "Please stop it! Make it stop!" She whined as she clutched him and twitched hard every time she heard any noise that sounded so much like the one that she was trying to get away from.

A hand came to her back she was gently pulled of her brother's leg. "It will be alright." He whispered to her. "It'll be gone by morning so don't fret."

"But it won't stop!"

"It happens sometimes Eythna." Came a tired voice and she was picked up. "Is there anything that will get your thoughts away from it?" He asked her, sighing when she shook her head. "Let's try reading something. Okay?" Her nod confirmed her answer and she was carried into his room.

Putting her down on a soft chair, he walked over to his shelf to get a book that she liked to read. He always had them in here since she started to come to his room when her mother was gone and she had nothing else to do. He sat in front of her in another chair that was like her low, red cushioned one, and opened that book. He turned to the first page and began to read after taking her hands away from her ears. After the first page, he looked up to her and saw she wasn't paying attention but covering her ears once more.

Sighing at her, he picked her up and set her on his lap to read once more after taking her hands away again. She actually started to pay attention as she couldn't hear the loud noises but listened to his calm, kind, and gentle voice and his beating heart behind her. She smiled as he did this and leaned against him and after a while she fell asleep in his arms. He still read after looking down at her once to make sure that she would make it asleep all the way without being woken again.

Putting the book to the side he watched her. She was so childish, he was glad that she didn't ask what the racket that they both heard was because he didn't want to make something up to explain it. He, of coarse, knew what was happening and he was saddened by it since it started and the fact that he knew it was going to happen when he heard her talk about it when they were walking past his room.

He wished it was him, instead of his father. He wished that he could have her wonderfully scented body over and over again like he dreamt he would. He wished that he were the one that she had married instead. He wished… Damn, he just wished that he had her all for himself and not share her with anyone except his demon half.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Solia was so happy that she was going to see her family. She still knew why she was coming to her homeland but it didn't matter. She knew she would be able to prevent her father's death. Though, if she wasn't and would fail, so 'brother' would come help her. Her trust in Takoku was immense and her doubts in him were very little. He was a strong man that would come to her out of love of him considering her family or a dear friend.

"So what do you think of my homeland Takoku?" She asked turning in her saddle to glance at the stoic youkai prince.

"Its quite impressive I should say. Your father seems so terrible in person but he takes good care of his people." He answered looking at her. _ He doesn't take care of you though. How can a father be so inconsiderate of his own daughter, especially one as kind and beautiful as you. _ He thought to himself and turned his gaze back to the surrounding buildings of the city.

The city was of a magnificent structure: its walls and buildings were put in place of an attack fortress and the whole city seemed to be on top of a hill. The buildings closer to the outside wall were shorter and got taller the farther inward they got. It was made for the soldiers on top of the buildings to shoot at others outside of the walls without any of the other soldiers on their side to get in the way. It was very impressive indeed.

But the structure of the city didn't matter, it was the prosperity of the people inside and in the country. As the group of a dozen soldiers or more, with the addition of Solia and Takoku, everyone could see that the people seemed very healthy and wealthy in fact. Takoku took this into account when he would have to rule his father's lands. His site seeing wandered back to the gates in front of them and made his face turn into complete and serious stone.

Solia called out to them and the gates opened immediately. They all walked through them and she smiled seeing her sisters around the entrance to their home.

With the help of a soldier, she climbed down from her horse and ran into their waiting arms. She cried in tears of joy, as she was surrounded by her loving brothers and sisters, in a family hug. They didn't make the embrace too long as they remembered that they could be killed anytime by an assassin if they stayed out too long.

Her smiled broadened as she held out her hand in a gesture of formality, "I'm pleased to tell you that Lord Takoku is here too." She told them all, but it was meant at her sisters because she knew that they loved his features.

Takoku bowed his head and walked beside her. "Nice to meet you too," he said leaning down to Solia's ear and whispered something to her. Her nod came and she ushered them to go inside so they could speak there.

They all moved inside and some servants came out after they entered and took care of their belongings. Once they got situated in the room where large amounts of people usually came, they began to speak abruptly to her in a multitude of questions.

Why haven't you been visiting us? Why have you not answered us in the last few weeks? I heard you had a child, can I come with you to see her? Solia was overwhelmed by them and laughed. "Gee guys! Can you let me answer one!"

Her siblings blinked and laughed as they nodded at once. Solia understood their excitement because they hadn't seen her in so long but the speed they kept asking their questions was powerful enough to make you die of confusion.

She took her youngest sister's hand that she had seen just a week ago and took her place on a cushion. Her face serious as she looked at all her siblings. "You know why I'm here right?"

The others looked at her weird and to each other. "Is something wrong sister?" The youngest asked.

Solia turned to her with anger and glared down at her. "Why didn't you tell me someone was trying to kill father?" Everyone became silent and watched Misiro for her answer. Takoku froze and closed his eyes for a second hoping the girl wouldn't tell her that it him that requested her be silent.

"I have my own reasons. Please sister! I didn't mean to make you worry, I did it for a good cause!" Her face was open in fear that Solia was going to be mad at her forever for not telling her.

"What would that be!?" Solia yelled at her and Misiro's eyes filled with tears.

"I can't say! I'm sorry!" Misiro yelled back at her and ran out, covering her face.

Solia was about to tell her sorry to yelling at her but it was too late and she dropped her arm and sat back down. Forming fists, she closed her eyes and apologized to everyone and excused herself. Takoku bowed to everyone and followed, walking beside her. Once they were away from her family, he spoke, "Solia… she meant it. Don't be angry with her. Father asked everyone to not speak about it to you. He didn't want you to go… you know that." He hated to lie to her partly but he had to, to keep his little secret.

Sighing when he smelt tears from her, he took her shoulders. "She did it for you Solia. She didn't want you hurt. Don't you realize how much everyone loves you? If you were gone, everyone would be miserable."

"I just can't stand when people lie to me and when they hide things from me. It just pisses me off so bad, I didn't mean to snap at her." She looked at him than back down letting her bangs cover her face. Takoku shook his head, "just go apologize to her."

Solia blinked and nodded. "I guess… I did yell at her." She used her sleeve to wipe her face dry and smiled at him a little. "Thanks Takoku." Turning, she walked towards her sister's room, Takoku in tow.

They came to the room and Solia walked inside holding her sister as she cried. Apologizing to her, Misiro nodded and whispered sorry over and over that Solia started to cry herself. Takoku stood outside the room keeping in mind that he would have to apologize to the girl too later tonight.

A servant came towards him and asked where Lady Solia was. He turned his head towards the door and she bit her lip, asking him if he could go get her. Rolling his eyes mentally, he knocked on the door, telling her someone wanted her.

Solia came out and asked the woman what she wanted. "Your father wishes to see you my Lady."

"Thank you Taki… I'll leave and go." She bowed her head and told her sister they could speak later. Takoku followed her to his study and Solia got onto the floor bowing to him. She sat back up when he said to and asked what he needed.

"Why are you here? You know how dangerous it is here now."

"I came to protect you father."

"Heh… you think you can protect me from these fools? You are wrong daughter, not even you could help me stay safe in these days. More people are being arrested for conspiracy of planning to kill me. Thousands I should say. Can you really protect me from so many?"

"I will try until I die father."

Solia didn't let her eyes leave the floor as she heard the shuffling of his kimono. His hand came around her chin and was looking into his face now. "You are stronger than I used to be and more trustworthy than everyone else. Your brothers aren't even as strong as you so maybe you could protect me."

Her eyes widened at his words and gawked. "Father," she whispered and blinked. "Do…Do you mean that?"

"Yes… I do. I'm getting old Solia… I'm starting to get pains at my joints so soon I won't be able to move."

Solia bit her lip, "father…Takashi's son is here. He could help protect you since he's here with me."

Darighon didn't take this well she could tell when he narrowed his eyes. "Why is he here with you?"

Solia shook her head quickly as she got what he was presuming. "No father! He's here to protect me! Takashi sent him with me!" This seemed to calm him and he nodded sitting back down on his cushion.

"I see…" Darighon sniffed the air and growled a little at Takoku's scent outside the door. "Come in Takoku."

The door slid open and Takoku bowed just like Solia had and stood looking him in the face. "So your father sent you here with her?"

"Hai, Lord Darighon."

"Since you are here, you can help her protect me. I know you heard what I told her a few moments ago."

"Hai, my Lord." He answered in respect since he was older than himself and a lord, though he, himself, would be a lord someday.

"Thank you for protecting her." He bowed down to him. Takoku and Solia looked at each other and Solia smiled at him. He was lucky to have the old man to show such gratitude. Takoku thanked him and Darighon stood, dismissing them.

Takoku followed Solia to her old room and stood outside as she gathered her fighting suit and changed. They went back to her father's quarters and watched over him.

This went on for a week; them following him everywhere and every once in a while Takoku split from Solia as she went to speak with some of her family. He hated for her to leave his site for so long as an hour or two. He dealt with it though because he had to protect her father. Besides, the guards and soldiers followed her whenever she went away from him.

Every once in a while Takoku would get a strange look from her father and he questioned himself what the old man was thinking. Finally, one day, when Solia was gone once more to visit one of her brothers or sisters, Darighon asked him the one thing that he thought about. "What is your relationship with my daughter? You are acting truly different than when I last saw you at the wedding."

"I assure you that it's nothing what you said like last time Lord Darighon. We are merely friends." He lied a little but knew that the idiot would believe him since his scent wasn't of lying because he was telling the truth. Most of it was the truth at least. No one can tell the difference unless they read minds.

"Good… I don't need you and her to ruin that pact between our countries with your young desires."

"I know not to do that my lord. I know the consequences if it would happen."

"So you say… if I ever see you look at her like other men do then it will be your head. Even if you are Takashi's son, I won't have my daughter fall for the son of her husband and ruin this pact." Takoku nodded in agreement even though he was loathing inside at him and so wanting to rip his head off. _He thinks that I don't know what will happen if I admit my true feelings to her. He thinks that just because he's much older than me that he knows what goes on in my head._ He thought and growled to himself.

Both their attentions went to the door of the study and as servant came in sliding a tray of tea inside and slid it shut. Her eyes and face didn't show but he arched an eyebrow as he caught her scent. It was sort of familiar and smelt like the girl's that he found in the mountains. Dismissing it from his mind, he stood and went to go get the tea, thanking the girl for it. She bowed and slid the door back closed and he could hear her footsteps as she walked back down the hall to do her other chores.

~.~

Hours passed and Takoku became bored just watching Darighon do his work. He was tore out of his state when he heard screaming come from the outside a loud boom of an explosion came. Takoku jumped up and narrowed his eyes, his hand on his sword. He growled and kept his senses open fully for any attack. Pounding of many feet was heard from the outside of the room and he tightened his grip on the sword and pushed it up a little from its sheath ready to fight.

He and Darighon let out a heavy sigh as Solia slammed the door open and ran inside. "Are you alright!?" She yelled to them and fell to her knees when she saw they were. Standing back up, she ran to them, standing on the opposite side of her father and also had her sword drawn a little from its decorative sheath.

Darighon watched them both and his eyes widened when he felt both their auras becoming stronger. They were stronger than himself was now and so glad that they both were here. His eyes snapped back to reality as he felt stronger auras from outside. He now knew why they let all their powers emerge and he put his drew his sword, knowing the auras that he felt we coming to get him. He heard Solia's and Takoku's draw too.

The wall exploded and in came many demons. Some stopped to look at the woman that was standing beside the lord and laughed at her. "What a foolish girl!" They yelled in laughter as they came at them again.

The battle began as Takoku and Solia clashed swords with them and stood where they were to keep from getting too close to her father and letting the demons get the chance to reach him. Metal on metal was heard through the castle and Darighon watched the battle closely to make sure that he was still safe and watching for anyone that would come too close to him. But no one would be able to get to him because Solia and Takoku were working as a team to keep the others far away. Every time that some one would come close, one of them would change opponents to kill that person.

Blood was covering everything by now and very few cuts appeared on both of his bodyguards. Suddenly, the demons stopped fighting and the ones that were fighting Solia and Takoku, stood in their stances with their swords still touching the other. They all smirked as they knew who this person was that made them stop.

The scent of a woman came through the opening of the downed wall and one of the protectors growled as he knew whom it was. "I should have known it was you that was doing this." Came the prince's harsh voice, full of danger and malice for the woman that he saw out of the corner of his eye.

Solia arched an eyebrow at her but as soon as she recognized her, she growled out. "You! You traitor!"

Her pale futures of her face turned into a grin as she looked to the Lady of the West. "I have always been a traitor. You just never realized it and thanks to this idiot prince, I have finally been able to free myself to complete my mother's wishes thanks to him." Her voice wasn't as smooth and sweet as it used to be, it was now full of her truest thoughts and words than what she had always said at the castle before she was dismissed from Takoku's custody.

"Oh yes, I bet you knew that I was an assassin but you would never believe that I would be someone since I was such an innocent girl. And I know you heard what the woman told you since you had someone follow me everywhere. That wasn't all my plan you know, but if I told you what I would further do then that would be stupid of me since I know that you two will survive."

Growls came from both of the people that she was speaking to and she laughed, shaking her head. She pulled her own sword across the ground as she stepped over to Solia. She grinned knowing that Solia wouldn't move from her stance since the man's sword as right above her head and if she attacked her than the man would swing down, killing her.

The assassin pulled her sword up and put the point to Solia's stomach. "Don't you think that I should get rid of this thing. Wouldn't it piss that husband of yours off to find out that his son and wife died by my hands? That daughter of yours would be so sad from your death. Such a disappointment."

"I don't care about my life… go ahead and kill me. If you can." Solia was terrified that this wench was threatening to kill her and her unborn pup. She wouldn't let her kill it and she growled at her, pushing into the sword a little showing that she meant what she said.

"Such a brave woman to do such a thing, and so pampered." Her eyes moved towards the man standing between the woman and Takoku. "Hello my lord. Hope you are having a nice day," she stated sarcastically as she bowed her head to him. The woman's sword moved from Solia's stomach and towards him as she took a step. This made Solia forget all about the sword above her and charge at her sword in an attacking position.

The assassin woman knew she would do this and deflected her attack. Bringing her sword back after Solia was thrown back into the wall, she jumped over to her and grinned seeing the queen's beautiful mouth have a nice stain of blood running down it. She laughed and put her sword to her neck as the fight began behind her as Takoku tried to protect Darighon and trying to get close to Solia. She laughed harder and Solia was struggling to get up. The woman could see Solia's blue clothing turn a darker color as her blood soaked it. Now she knew that her arm was broken.

"Stupid, stupid girl." She whispered as she cut a small gash into her neck. Solia's eyes widened at this and both women heard growls coming from the fight behind them. "What do you think Takashi will do once he finds out that you are dead? Will he mourn for you or will he rejoice at getting rid of you and get another wife." She made a small gasp as she thought of something, "or perhaps he might start the war that was going on before he married a sorry girl like you?"

Swords moved and blood splashed everywhere as the two stabbed into each other. Green eyes widened and growls were heard as the person twitched. Blood dripped down the sword of this person from the one in front of this one someone and down the arm that held it, soaking the clothes even more than they once were.

"Solia!" Came screams from the two men and she blinked trying to stay awake. She gagged and spat up blood and her eyes started to turn hazy as she drifted in and out of consciousness. A flare of wind came, blew at her from someone's power flaring immensely and she forced her eyes open as she tried to keep them from closing and losing herself to the sleep that wanted to take her.

"You are smart…. girl." Came the female's voice and she coughed up her own blood, going to her knees, as weak as ever. Her eyes moved to the men behind her and one dashed to her side and pulled the sword from her gut and disappeared in more gusts.

Time seemed so slow as Solia leaned against the wall trying to focus on something so she wouldn't loose herself in sleep, but it was impossible from the amount of blood that she had lost by now.

A loud growl was heard and screams of men came as someone transformed. Blood spilled on her as the assassins died and the wind died down as soon as no more was heard. She heard some voices but couldn't remember who's they were. Feeling someone's hand on her shoulder, she closed her eyes, feeling comfort from this person and the person's voice. She didn't mean to do this but it happened and she lost herself into what she wasn't trying to do that whole time.

"No! Damnit, don't do that Solia!" Takoku screamed, he pulled himself from her and ripped a piece off his kimono and pulled the sword out of her, replacing it with the cloth instead.

"I'll go get someone," her father yelled and desperately got back to his feet and ran off with a few tears running down his face. _I won't let you die Solia! You are all I have of your mother!_ He screamed in his head and yelled out for a doctor!

Takoku closed his eyes and shook is head over and over again. "Stupid girl, I knew this would happen! You better not die!" He picked her up in his arms and sped out of room in a speed he never used before. An assassin came at him and tried to kill her but it was too late as he let out his sword's attack of wind and it sliced the man to bloody pieces. No one would get in his way to save her, and at the moment he didn't care if her father lived. As long as she lived then that was all that mattered and he would be satisfied to have the island into a war again as long as she was in the living world.

"Lord Darighon!" The ice prince yelled out and jumped over to him, grabbed his wrist, so that he could keep up with him, and now was running towards the castle's doctor's place. He growled out as he smelt blood of one person and raced to the rooms. There, he found the doctor killed in his own chair, his eyes wide in shock and the pain that came a second before his death.

Takoku and Darighon stopped in their tracks at the site. "What are we suppose to do now?" Takoku whispered and closed his eyes.

"Doesn't your father have something to bring people back to life?"

"She's not dead yet… but when she lost consciousness, she came closer. I shouldn't have touched her." He growled out the last part in a whisper.

"Take her back to the west and keep her there. I know your doctor is very good at what she does." He turned to him to see Takoku looking at him with a desperate face on, like the one he had when Solia's mother was killed. He now understood what he told him about their relationship was true but his face told him of how he felt for her. He growled at this and yelled for him to take her there before she died. If Takoku didn't go now then he would kill him for loving her so much. "Go now!"

Darighon felt a gust of wind and knew that he left. He stood there in quiet void of his thoughts as others surrounded him. He didn't pay attention to them as dozens of swords stabbed into his frail, old body and eyes widened at this, now back into the real world. He stared into one of the assassin's eyes as he stood in front of him and now knew that this was a plan to get Solia and Takoku away to get to him. He knew why no one bothered him on the way to the doctor's because they knew the site of the dead doctor would make Darighon command Takoku to take her to the west. It was a brilliant but evil plan.

Tears ran down his eyes and drowned in his own blood that couldn't get out his throat. His head drooping low, unable to hold it any longer. "Solia," he whispered in a bloody breath and closed his eyes knowing that without a doctor here, he would be dead anyway. The void that he was once in before, when he was thinking, he was in again and the blackness surrounded him as he felt himself gag and cough up blood over and over again. The assassins finally dropped him and he fell to his knees before going to the floor into his pool of blood. The swords were still in him and stabbed further into him, making him twitch from the pain and the wounds opening more and blood quickly pooling under him. He didn't feel any pain though because he was already dead.

The battle against lord Darighon's men and the assassins went on without his men knowing that he was dead. More lives were lost from both sides and the screaming of women and children ran throughout the city.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Takoku held the young woman close in his arms, his eyes pouring the tears at last from the lose that he thought he would have if she died. He wiped her face clean with his sleeve and shook his head at her foolishness of running into the hands of the assassins. He could still hear her breathing against the wind's noise, but it was raspy and her skin was becoming colder and colder by the second as he flew over the lands on his cloud.

The demon prince tried to keep her warm with his arms but it was futile as she slipped further towards her death. Even with his hands rubbing her body, she still didn't get warmer and it was pulling him apart. "Don't leave Solia." He cried out in short breaths and started to make small rasps for air as he cried harder. He knew that it would be an hour at the speed he was going now and was now starting to worry that he wouldn't make it in time.

_I could have stopped them! I should have known that the woman would do this, I should have killed her before she stabbed her. I don't care if I got sliced from the man, as long as she wasn't hurt._ He paused in his thoughts. A_s long as she didn't die._

He pulled her closer to his chest and took in her bloody scent. "You better not die on me Solia." He whispered to her and looked up to see his home in small flames some places. He growled asking himself who would do this and landed inside the castle grounds. The area was covered in bodies of the men that were healing were sitting everywhere around the perimeter. He asked where Suna was when he found someone conscious and was told that she was in her part of the castle healing everyone that were worse than themselves.

He thanked him and took off, slamming the door open to her quarters and yelled for her.

"Keep quiet!" She whispered in an angered voice and came to him. Her eyes widened seeing the Lady Solia and told him to take her to her room. Takoku immediately followed as told and Suna hurried behind him. She told him to go out and wait for her to say what she needed and when he was going out, she ripped her fighting kimono off and began chanting her spells of healing after she removed Takoku's sleeve.

Takoku was tapping his foot impatiently on the hard, wooden floor and began pacing outside the room from his frustration and worrying.

Suna sighed heavily and collapsed onto the ground, tired from her healing. Eyes moving slowly to her face, she listened for any change in her breath. There wasn't any but she was glad that she was still breathing so she knew that she would live.

The woman healer whispered for him to come in and Takoku ran in, kneeling beside her and helped her sit up. "Will she be okay?" He asked in a hurry and Suna nodded. A huge pain left his chest and he smiled to himself in relief.

"But why didn't you take her to the healer there in her home?"

"We were attacked and I guess that they killed him before going after us. It was planned to do this to her… we were surrounded and I could do nothing to save her from this. " His head fell down and shook it, he started to cry again, not caring about her. He knew that Suna knew of his mask for everything. This was one time that he would let her see his true self because he wasn't able to hold that mask any longer.

Suna's eyes widened and realized how he felt for her now that he finally let it down and held him like she did when he was a child. She told him that it wasn't his fault and smoothed his hair, trying to calm him.

"What about her father? Is he okay?" She asked him when he was calmed a little now.

"I don't know, he told me to go after we saw the dead doctor." His head snapped up and he swore to himself. _He's probably dead now. Damnit! I'm so stupid!_ He growled loud, pushing Suna away and disappearing out the door after his yell of, "keep Solia safe."

Suna was frozen in place and when she did come back from her revere, she jumped up yelling for Takashi.

He came in a rush and asked her what the matter was. He saw someone behind her and looked closer, eyes widening. _Solia!_ He ran over to her and kneeled down, picking her head up and was relieved hearing her breathing and her chest moving up and down.

"Takashi! Protect Solia!" Suna yelled to him and took off after Takoku, she caught up to him in a mere minute or two. "What are you doing!?"

"I need to go back! I left him with those assassins! I can't let him die!"

~.~

A whine escaped her lips as the bright light came to her eyes. She turned her head and was overcome with pain all throughout her body. Gasping for air, as if she hadn't been breathing for hours, she clutched her throat with a pale hand. Her eyes snapped open and tears began to form as she thought of her last memory. _I almost died. I almost left my Eythna._ She curled into a ball, pain still everywhere, as she began to cry silent tears.

Scrapping of wood and metal was heard beside her and she turned her head that way. A short form appeared in the brightened doorway and then a gasp. "MOMMY!" Came an excited voice than she felt herself falling to the floor with someone on top of her. "Mommy! Mommy, you're awake!"

Arms encircled her neck and she blinked looking down at the small face with tears coming down it. Her own eyes filled with tears again and she wrapped her arms around her little girl once again. "My Eythna." She whispered, her arms tightening.

Solia heard some running looked up seeing two familiar faces in the doorway. One collapsed to his knees and the other stood eyes wide.

She felt more arms around her suddenly and she blinked and gasped in pain. They were gone in that moment she gasped and her daughter's arms disappeared too, leaving her form in a ball.

"Solia! Get Suna!" Came her lover's voice, her body being pushed back gently to the futon. She felt her mind drift and go into her dark corner of her mind and suddenly the pain was gone.

"Daddy! Is she alright!?" Eythna's voice came in a worried extreme.

"Don't yell, she's alright. She's just in pain. Don't worry," soothed a smiling Lord as he stood, picked Eythna up who began to struggle. "Let's give her some peace. She'll be up in a little bit. We can go see her after you're done with your training for today." Takashi assured her quietly.

"Okay daddy."

His face didn't have its mask right now and he kneeled beside her form, taking her hand. "I'm sorry I left you," he whispered low and closed his eyes. "I don't want to tell you what I saw Solia. Your heart will be broken. Please forgive me for my selfishness." His eyes watered at his silent confession to her. He was saying it now because he was preparing himself for telling her later. The site that he witnessed in her homeland killed even the cold-hearted prince and it devastated him because it was something that his dear Solia cared so much about. "You shouldn't have-" He was touched on the shoulder and he cleared his eyes before looking to Suna.

"Give her some seed of the poppy. She was having pains again," he told her, glancing back to Solia before going out of the room. Suna nodded and ran back out to get some.

~.~

She smiled gently to her daughter as she played with her in the colorful flowers of the field. Her body still hurt for some reason sometimes now that she was awake, but it didn't happen often because of the pain potion that she drunk every hour or so. She guessed it was because she was stabbed in the chest and Suna's healing had the effect of certain organs hurting whenever she healed someone.

She wasn't as pale as before since she ate her first meal today after awakening again. Her eyes had their old cheerfulness but her voice was a little raspy still because she had slept for so long. Everyone in the castle were glad that she was finally back to do her normal activities and just to have her presence inside the grounds.

As soon as she awakened again, he didn't know when he would tell her the dreadful news and told his father that he needed to tell her. If she got mad and hit him it wouldn't matter because it was his fault for what happened and he deserved to be hit for leaving everyone in the state it was in.

Every night since he had come back from her homeland, he saw blood and flames in his dreams. The screams of the murdering of her people rang hard in his ears and every time he saw her face, he saw the bodies of her loved ones. He knew he would have to tell her soon because she would find out soon enough but he didn't want her to find out. She would probably hate him forever because he had chosen to save her instead of protecting her father.

A long sigh came form his lips and he stood from the spot he had been sitting at since the beginning of her playing with Eythna. Takashi looked to his son and knew just by the look in his face that it was his moment to speak with her.

Going down to the grounds where she sat with her blankets, he closed his eyes in a painful memory when he stood beside her and put his hand on her shoulder.

Her beautiful, smiling face came to look up to him and he swallowed. "What is it Takoku?"

"I need to speak with you, alone." Solia nodded and told Eythna to go eat something.

"Come with me mommy!"

"No dear. I'll stay out here for a while."

"But…" Came her response and she told in a more commanding tone to go eat again. Takoku formed a fist with his other hand, knowing that she would get angry with him and her tone now didn't help one bit.

Once Eythna was gone, Solia looked to him and told him to sit. Shaking his head, he kneeled down in front of her. "I-I have to tell you… something." His face slipped into total pain at what he was going to say. Solia sensed that what he was going to say wasn't going to be good and she looked down telling him to do so.

"Hit me if you want me to, do it now or else you'll really want to kill me." Her looked at her eyes as they widened and her gaze went to his face.

"Is…is it really… that bad?"

"Hit me now." He whispered.

"No… Just tell me." Her voice showed some worry and he heard her breathing and heartbeat quicker in anticipation.

"Fine." He looked down and closed his eyes. "Your," he started to say but changed his mind. "I watched you almost die in my arms and was relieved when you were healed. But when I got back to your home…I…" His throat tightened and looked back up to see her face. It was blank and the moment he said what he needed to was going to change it into pure rage he thought. Finally, he said what he needed to spit out, "I saw your family and everyone… dead. Everything was burning. Solia… Solia…I'm sorry." He was now crying and his eyes closed; hands over them now, before he could even see her face change.

"The…assassins?" She asked staring past his head into the distance as she felt her heart being torn out of her chest over and over again with her families' faces flashing across her eyes of memories.

"Yes." He whispered in a short gasp.

"Why?"

"To… to save you. You were dying."

"You left my father unprotected! You left him to die!" She screamed, standing and stared at the top of his head. "How dare you leave him! Who told you to leave!?" Her anger flared and her powers emerged in a enveloping aura of violet and terrible winds.

"He told me so. He told me to come here." He tensed at her powers and got ready for anything she would throw at him.

"You were supposed to protect him! How dare you leave him! You are no friend of mine!"

"I did it for you!" He yelled back, his face still in his hands. "I did it so you wouldn't die!"

"I would rather die than my own father! I don't care what happens to me, as long as my family lives! You didn't even bring him with you here!"

"I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry!"

Her fists formed at these words and the winds around her blew harder, pushing him off his feet and against a tree. "I should of left without you! I would have been able to save him from death if you weren't there!"

Takoku looked at her reddened eyes and gasped at her anger. He needed to calm her down before she transformed and destroyed everything. He now regretted ever telling her what was needed to be said. "I did it so I wouldn't loose you!" He yelled out, now putting his arm in front of his face as gashes started to form on his perfect skin.

"What am I worth to you?! My death means nothing to you!"

"No! You're wrong! You are worth everything to me!" The trees' branches snapped and leaves whipped from their branches. Blood droplets came from his small wounds all over his arms and face and mixed into the leaves and splinters of wood. The solid ground tore from its holding and circled her with everything else.

One eye closed, he stared at her as he grinded his teeth together and lunged forward, wrapping his arms around her tightly, standing his ground. "I don't want to loose you! You are every thing to me," closing his eyes, he growled softly as he got to her ear. "I love you too damn much too let you die. You are all I care about." He clashed his lips over hers and now he didn't have one clue what he was doing as his instincts took over. He forgot about everything that he would have cared about after his declaration of his love to her. He didn't care what would happen to him now, he just wanted her to calm down and be back to normal.

Her body twitched and her mind spun at his words, her winds finally slowly dying away. The debris fell slowly as the winds died and her eyes turned back to normal green color. As she stared at his face, that was so calm, her hands went to his chest. Pushing gently against him, they finally broke and Takoku was biting his lower lip in worry.

For a second, he stared her down with a loving stare with those beautiful violet eyes, before he lowered them to the ground. "Sorry." Came his soft whisper with a gentle voice and his let his arms go to his side. Turning on his heal, he walked away from her head still low and his arms hanging limply beside his body. His movements were slow and his stance was that of relaxation. For once in his life he wasn't standing like a prideful prince but that of someone that had just committed a crime and was now going to his execution.

Takashi stared at his son, his eyes wide. Confusion ran through his head at what just happened. How did he do that? What did he say to her to make her calm again?

If he only had seen what he did, he couldn't see what Takoku did, though, with all the debris that were in the way and only her back faced him so he couldn't tell what his son had done. But the way he was acting was as if he had just given up on everything. A thought came to him but he wouldn't believe it. Takoku knew what would happen if he admitted his love for her. Or at least thought what would happen if he did, so Takashi wouldn't believe it that he would do something as drastic as that.

He was about to jump out of the window before Solia followed his son, grabbing the end of his torn and slightly bloody sleeve.

"Do you mean it?" She asked softly as she pulled on him because he wouldn't stop walking.

His response was slow and when he spoke, it was the softest she had ever heard him. Takashi only heard the deep rumbling of his voice but Solia heard it well enough. "Hai…"

"H-how long," she asked, her voice of shock and her hand's grip let go a little when he had stopped walking.

"Years," came his simple response and her eyes widened, fully letting go of the soft cloth and covering her mouth instead.

Tears started to fill her eyes and Takoku took his chance to disappear as she collapsed to the ground, eyes closed and face in a mix of emotions. His form disappeared in a gust of wind and her cries deepened when she felt that his presence was gone.

"Solia?" Came her husband's voice with worry and gentleness. His hand touched her shoulder and she jumped, looking at him and lunged into his arms. "What's wrong Solia?" Only her cries came to his ears and he picked her up to cradle her small form against him as he walked back inside.

The servants moved out of the way of their lord and bowed their heads in respect. After he moved from the distance of hearing, they began to speak to each other in hushed whispers. They had seen what the prince had done to her to make her stop her screaming and anger from killing him. This made the rumor of him loving her true but they knew not to speak of this to anyone but between each other. If they told the Lord Takashi about Lord Takoku, than he would be made to disown his only son. They all knew that Takashi would never do that but the other lordlings and Takashi's councilors would make him do so.

Also with the assassinations and killings of others made them not want to put an advantage out for those damned murderers. If Takashi didn't have an heir if he died than the whole land would be in chaos from the wars of the smaller ranked lords that wanted to take his place. With the war that was already happening in their Lady's land, they knew not to do this at all.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Solia wasn't herself as she usually was. All she did was sit in her room staring out into space and the maids of the castle were beginning to worry that Takoku had done the wrong action, even though that was all he could do- shocking her out of her anger and calming her down. Her eyes were abnormal too, glazed over as if she were in a trance and she never ever ate much, which worried them all.

The prince was also like this so the whole castle was in mixed field of emotions and their master was beginning to feel like this too since neither of the people he cared for weren't back to normal.

The servant that brought Solia her meal left and once she was gone, Solia crawled over to the lit window to stare out into the distance.

_He admitted his feelings to me. He loves me._ She thought to herself, looking out the window than back to her daughter who was sleeping in her futon. _I should have never come here… I don't know what to do now. He loves me and… and I can do nothing._

Her feelings for the prince had enormously grew when they were at her father's castle. The more she was around him, the more she started to develop feelings of love for him for being so loyal and obedient, even though her father was such a jerk towards him. That was why she went to see her family everyday, to get away from him because she knew that if she would fall for him, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from admitting that she loved him. She tried to control herself by seeing him only once in a while and the more days that went by, the more she thought that she should have stayed here, in Takashi's castle.

Her eyes darted to a pair of birds that were chirping away and she sighed as she saw them look towards her. They became silent and for once in a lifetime… the creatures came to her and tweeted softly trying to cheer her up. Her lips curled into a soft smile and she opened her mouth to sing to them. Her voice sounded of an angel and she sang low.

Some servants froze to listen to her painful voice and to hear the words of her song. The world seemed to stop as no noise was heard throughout the castle. Only the noise of nature was heard beyond her song.

_Come save me from this life_

_Come save me from this pain_

_Come save me from this world_

_That drives me insane_

_My loneliness is eternal_

_Every time I loose someone_

_My anger is fearsome_

_For every lie that comes _

_The blood of that lies beneath me_

_Knife in my hand that I can see_

_Your life is gone_

_And now is mine_

_When that knife goes through my heart_

It ended in her soft crying and she curled into her ball. Holding herself close and the castle went back to normal, because they didn't want to get depressed by her misery.

"Mommy." Eythna's voice came from beside her but she didn't notice. The young girl wrapped her arms around her mother and cried too because she couldn't do anything to bring her back to her happy self.

~. ~

Her eyes opened and she groaned rubbing the crust from her eyes and the dried tears from her face. It was nighttime so the whole castle was quiet. Eythna was gone from her side so she guessed that Takashi took her.

She felt like going outside because the breeze coming from outside felt good. Maybe the warm air would bring her from her melancholy state. Standing, she slipped quietly out her room and into the hallway, making her way towards the gardens.

When she came to the garden, she was reminded of her sister so she shook her head, trying to keep those memories out of her mind. They were too sad to keep and so she was trying to forget everything that had to make her sad for her family. Moving towards the edge of the woods, she froze when she saw a lone figure lying on the bench, not moving a single muscle.

Swallowing at the amazing site in front of her, she stood there until she decided to walk over. The site of his face, casted in a dullish white from the moon, his eyes closed and his shining silver hair made him look like he was casted in ice. Her hand moved without her knowing and touched that face that she loved and she felt a chill run through her body from his cold skin. The eyes that she imagined snapped open but they were not what they expected. They were sad instead of that happiness that she rarely got to see.

She stared into those eyes and kneeled beside him, his eyes following her movement. They changed to confusion and she took her hand away to place it and her other on his chest, putting her head on them.

He stared at her and blinked but stayed quiet because he was at a loss for words. They stayed in their places for a long time that seemed like forever in their minds.

Finally, he took her hands in his and sat up, laying them back down in his lap, wrapping his arms around her small form, and laying his silvered head on top her's.

His long fingers combed through her hair and he sighed softly. _Solia… I should not have said anything._

"What have you done?"

Takoku blinked, stopping what he was doing, just letting his hands stay where they were in her hair. "What do you mean?"

"Why did you say that? You should not have done it."

He felt her grip tighten on his pants and growled low. "I… I had to. You were loosing control and your demon would have come out."

"…I didn't though." Solia whispered looking up into his gaze and her lip quivered. Her hands moved from his lap to his face, her thumbs tracing over his magenta stripes. "I…I don't know what to do. I'm so lost," a hint of pain filled her voice as she said this and tears began to fill the edges of her green-orbed eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"Do you know how I feel? Do you know what I've been going through since that day? Takoku… look at me. My feelings for you are conflicting with my duty. With those damn laws."

He stared at her confused but his eyes widened when he suddenly got it. "Solia."

"We should never have met. It's only causing trouble now. Takoku…" Those horrible tears in her eyes over-filled and dropped down her face. "Takoku…I love you." This was when her blush came and her eyes moved away from his face. "I thought…of you as more than a friend before. But it grew so much when I was around you more… a-at my f-father's," the words at the end were stuttered because of the memories they brought and knowing she would never see them again.

Closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at her, he asked, "Is that why you went all those times to see your family?"

"Hai, but it wasn't working. I hate this Takoku. I hate this so much…If we're together them you'll be disowned and I'll be killed since I'm not suppose to be with anyone except… your father." Her crying started then so he took her onto his lap, holding her close, his face in her hair as he rubbed her back in a soothing motion. "I don't want to betray him… but I can't keep this up any longer." Her guilt was growing the more she thought about it, her hands clutching onto him and mind racing with her thoughts that she would never be able to be with this man that she loved.

"Then forget about your duty… and those damn laws. Let's run away or we can just be together. Let's just pretend like nothing happened and sneak off somewhere alone. Let's just forget about you being my father's wife and I'll claim you as my own. If I do get disowned, oh well… I can live with you in any of those villages. "

"I'm thinking about doing that, but I'm not sure about it." She felt his hand go underneath her chin and lift her head to face him. His face was serious now and she now knew that anything he said would be what he was thinking and wasn't going to back down from it. His mouth opened slightly, leaning towards her, he pressed his warm lips against hers. Her eyes widened once again and the memories flashing across her eyes from the event he had done a few days ago. All her worries and troubles melted away with his passionate kiss and her eyes closed, her hands circling in small fists with his clothes.

One of his arms circled around her waist, pulled her closer till he could feel the warmth of her soft breasts through his clothes. He let her lips go and looked into her lustful eyes when she opened them. "I'm claiming you, and if anyone tries to kill you. I'll protect you. I'm tired of waiting and I don't think I'll find anyone else in my future." Takoku's thin lips curled into a smile and he nuzzled the side of her neck's flesh. "You are the first woman that I have actually loved, so I'm not letting you go."

"…Go ahead then… before… before anyone comes out and discovers us." She gave him some more room by tilting her head to the side and he sighed, taking in her scent of rose petals and mountain grass. His fangs grew in length as he kissed her smooth skin, that excited him, and opened his mouth a little about to bite down to mark her. "Are you sure about this?" He asked, running his rough tongue across the tips of his lengthened canines.

"Hai… hurry." She ushered and used her arm to push his mouth onto her skin and a shiver ran through her as they pierced through. Takoku closed his golden eyes in satisfaction because she was now his, though his father's mark was still on her but he didn't care. He would deal with him and the councils' wrath later; he was just wanting to be with her. But that was if they found out because he knew that Solia would try to hide it from everyone.

But something not to his knowledge was happening. Someone was watching the whole scene and shook its head in a sad way as they closed the curtains closed and went back to the bed.

Solia wrapped her arms around his waist and closed her eyes before whispering in a lustful tone, "take me."

Takoku withdrew his fangs from her and looked at her. "What about…"

"I don't have one anymore… not since I was stabbed." Her eyes opened to lock with his and licked his cheek before trailing kisses down his chin and to his neck.

He stopped her by putting his hand between her lips and his skin. "Let's…let's do this somewhere else."

"Okay," she replied and gave a small yelp when she was suddenly lifted up and carried away by her beautiful lover that she never knew would love her. This was one of her best moments of her life. She thought he was very handsome for someone so young, though he was her age almost.

The trees whipped past them, and the scent of the night's mist was lofting around them and starting to dampen their clothes. A little of the moonlight's ray got through the trees and praised them with the lovely light of the night.

Her eyes closed as she leaned against his firm chest, her hand starting to wander over his body and under his clothing. She smirked as she got through the silky barrier and felt smooth and muscular skin under her fingers. She moved more of his top away and drew her kisses over his chest and laughed a little when she heard a low purr-like sound coming from him. "Just like Takashi." She whispered to herself but he answered her in his own question.

"What do you mean?"

"You make a sound like a purr just like him. I knew you were similar but not like this." She heard a growl from him and sighed, "it's a good thing. I like it a lot. It's… it's soothing to me." She placed her kisses across his chest again to hear that noise she so liked and smiled as she placed more and more upon his skin. They suddenly stopped and she blinked looking up to him in confusion. They couldn't be that far away already.

Takoku seemed to sense her question and answered. "I'm faster than my own father and you too," he whispered into her ear and he put her down to begin his roam of her body. His hands moved swiftly but gently through her clothes to get to her, but trying not to rip her delicate sleeping kimono and cloak. His other hand moved to her waist where the sash was and began untying it as she was doing the same thing to his clothing.

Their heartbeats and breaths quickened when they finally got a glimpse of each other's naked bodies. His eyes wandered down her body from the curve of her tanned neck, where his mark now was, to the round mounds of her chest, to her the curves of her waist where a scar was. He thought in anger that the woman that almost killed her caused this scar and he closed his eyes not wanting to look at it.

Solia was shocked at his body. He was much more muscular and healthy than any other man that she had seen and she was in wonder at how such a young man could so much like an adult. Though he did train more than others had so she was happy that he was the one that her own heart had chosen.

Her eyes glistened in excitement as lustful eyes of hers had gotten to the stiffened member of his body. His length was bigger than any she'd ever seen and she could feel her arousal grow as she imagined him inside her in the rhythmic movements of their bodies. Her eyes moved back to his face and her shoulders slumped as she saw his eyes close in sadness. She knew that he had seen the scar the she had and moved to wrap her arms around him and holding him close.

"It wasn't your fault." She assured him and felt his strong arms around her shoulders and tightened.

"It was."

"No… you were occupied with the assassins that were around you. You were doing what was right and it was her fault that I got hurt. It was a trap and I should have known. I should have known before that because what I found out."

His eyes opened to look at the arch of her neck. "What did you find out?"

"I want to forget about it. It's no matter now because it's in the past. Let's finish what we started." Her lips met his neck and he closed his eyes in relaxation as she nipped at his skin. Solia's arms untwisted themselves from his waist and teeth cut cleanly into his neck, her neck arched as she sucked gently at his blood and he lowered himself onto the ground. Her mouth still on him and his hands ran down her back, letting her shiver in his arms in a hypnotizing way.

She let go and licked his wound clean of his blood and looked at him. He claimed her lips and tasted his own blood on her soft, luscious ones and kissed deeper as he licked her clean of himself. His tongue running over her mouth and she growled in satisfaction to him, nipping at his lip for permission to further their passionate kiss. He agreed in a soft nip at her lip and slipped his tongue into her cavern when she opened her mouth a little.

He moved them into a sitting position, she on his lap and her pale but smooth legs wrapped around his waist. She defiantly knew what she was doing and it pleased him because most women that he had slept with didn't know what the hell to do. They usually just let him do what he wanted to and he was pleased that she did know what she wanted instead of allowing only himself to be pleasured. His clawed hands moved to her buttocks and grabbed them, pulling her closer to him, feeling her heat against him, which excited him the more.

He only slept with others to please his lust and after he met Solia, he slept with them to release himself after being around her. Of coarse this was natural for demons in these days, especially the lords and older children of the island. But some of the lower ranking youkai had their fun also, but most of the time they did it for their pleasure and to maybe have that woman get pregnant with their own child.

Solia knew this and didn't care, just as long as he didn't do it all the time. She probably would do it too if she wanted to, if he ever became her mate and he was gone so long he couldn't please her like this night.

Their kiss turned into a battle of dominance and they laughed in their own head at each other but she grinned as she won and broke it looking at him. Her heavy breathe on his face and his own warm breath on her and looking at each other as though they just played a game. He buried his face into her chest and lowered her onto her back and took her legs from around his striped waist.

It was Takoku's turn to play with her and he let himself let go of control as his mouth, teeth, and tongue explored her body and its curves. Teeth nipping, tongue licking and mouth placing small, juicy kisses down her body and sometimes taking one of her hard nipples in his mouth to suckle as if he was a little babe once again. Her moans drove him crazy and made him come closer to his climax, which happened anyhow whenever he touched her skin. He could smell her arousal growing more and more from all the touching he was doing to her.

He drove his mouth downwards and when he got to her small forest of curls, he grinned, entering and getting closer to her heat and the smell of her immense arousal driving him quicker down and finally tasted her sweet bodily fluid when he slipped his tongue between her folds. She tasted even better down here than her cavern and his greed increased, as he wanted more and more of her taste. His tongue licking and sucking faster than before and her moans coming more and more as his mouth took her for the first time.

Solia's fingers clawed at the ground at the pleasure that ran throughout her body and her head was tilted back in a scream-like pose and when she felt herself coming closer and closer to her climax, she closed her eyes shut. She panted as she slowly took hold of his silver haired head and tugged it back from her heat, so he was now left to taste his lips for her. Eyes pleading for him to release her, he nodded as he came back over her to hover for a little while, his hot, moist breath hitting her face when he looked into her eyes.

Their chests heaved up and down as they stared before she moved her hands to his back and pulled him to her, his weight not bothering her because that's what she liked. Her lips met his and they closed their eyes and his readied himself over her entrance after pushing her legs apart. He opened his eyes to look at her and plunged into her, her eyes snapping open as she was filled to the brim.

He felt so good in her she stopped kissing him as she laid her head back against the ground and looked up at him. Takoku moved slow at first as he kissed around her neck, but his pace quickened as he felt he was closer to releasing. Solia clawed at his back and moaned in pleasure when she wrapped her sweaty legs around his waist to bring him deeper inside her.

They both clutched their eyes shut as they climaxed and he collapsed on top of her, his face lying on her soft mounds and felt her fingers and claws rake through his hair, her cheek nuzzling the top of his head. He let himself make the sound that she loved and he didn't mind because he was happy, so very happy. Wrapping his arms around her, he nuzzled her in a soothing manner as he listened to her quick heartbeat and heavy, hot breaths that he felt on top his scalp.

"I love you," he heaved out his lungs and looked at her smiling, flushed face.

"I… love you too." She whispered through her pants and closed her eyes as she kissed his forehead. A smile came to his lips at this night and was glad that he had told her. He would finally be with the woman he first loved and he didn't care about anything else but protecting her. "Arigato." He whispered, though he said it low enough that she didn't hear through her panting.

After he caught his breath, he sat up, leaving her warm cavern and kissed her deeply, his arms on the side of her head, and his hair flowing around his form in a silver curtain of hair to shade her from the night's creatures. He finally broke it and sat up fully, taking her arm and pulling her hot form to him as he laid on the ground, her head on the curve of his neck and her breasts pressing against him. They relaxed against each other and listened to each other until she finally chose to speak.

"Takoku?"

"Hmm?"

"Do… you think that we could… have met even though there was a war?" Her mind wandered to this question often this past week after he had said his love to her. She thought that they have met anyway, even though there was a war between their countries because each would get tired of loosing their own soldiers and make a peace agreement of some sort and since they were both bachelor's, they would probably marry each other for political reasons.

Takoku looked down at her and smiled. "Hai… I've always thought so since we are both of an important royal family, same age as each other, the offspring of our father's that led the war, and the eldest of our families," he laughed as the thought that came to him. "Though I'm the only one of my father's children, so I would have to marry no matter."

"Yeah." Solia nuzzled his neck and ran small over his firm and sweaty chest, her claws scrapping his skin lightly. She laid on him for a few minutes until her face turned grave from her current thoughts. He smelt her fear and looked down, taking her chin in his hand and turning her face towards him. "What are you thinking?"

"What-what are we going to do about the councilors? They will find out because it can't be a secret. Everyone will find out because they'll tell everyone else about us. _Us_ together is too much for them to keep to themselves." Her nails scratched into him as her fear gripped her more tightly.

"You don't worry about it. I know they will find out… I think they already know how I felt about you before all this happened. It was obvious from the way I've changed and the way I acted around you. They've known me forever, so my changes were known to them. I'm not the cold hearted man any longer because of you." He kissed her, his thumb rubbing her cheek.

Solia broke it, pushing away from him, her eyes wide as she stared at him. "What about your father?"

"I'll deal with him. I don't care what he does. I've decided my fate and I'll take care of it. If he tries to hurt you, I'll protect you. Don't worry my love." He ran his finger over his mark and sighed. "I'll protect you with my life. Come, let's get back." He started to get up but he stopped when she looked at herself and sniffed. Looking at him, her eyes asked if they should bathe.

"It doesn't matter. They already know what probably happened. The guards probably saw us when we left. Quit worrying." He took her hand and pulled her to her feet, and kneeled down grabbing his clothes and started to put them on. He felt her eyes staring at him and was wondering if she would forget about her worries. After he was dressed, he picked her kimono up and its layers before dressing her. He felt her shiver under the cold fabric and every time he would rub at the spot where it would brush against her.


End file.
